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Ahmed Tahir
The ceiling holding the conference hall of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) secretariat in Lafia, Nasarawa State, has collapsed, preventing members from holding their congresses.
The development came months after Governor Abdullahi Sule promised to rehabilitate the edifice but failed to do so.
The Nigeria Tribune reports that the secretariat was constructed by the military administration of Col Bala Maude in 1999.
Members have to hold the congress scheduled for February 7 in the open at the premises of the secretariat over the deplorable condition of the secretariat.
At the congress, the chairman of the Council in the state, Mr Salihu Alkali decried the state of the secretariat while urging Gov Sule to fulfil his promise of putting the facility in order.
Governor Sule had during a media parley with journalists in the state in October 2022, promised to fund the renovations of the secretariat.
At the parley, he announced a donation of N20 million towards the project but the council urged him to assign a contractor to ensure a thorough and quality job.
However, Mr Alakili said several efforts to get the state government to fulfil its promises on the matter have not yielded any positive results.
Our correspondent reports that at the Tuesday Congress, Mr Isaac Ukpoju, the chairman of the Correspondent Council in the state had drawn attention to the state of the secretariat, which he pointed out, was an “accident waiting to happen”.
He said the council must look for an alternative venue for its meetings as the secretariat is no longer habitable.
The council chairman, therefore, directed that congresses would hold in the open in the interim until the executive can find a way out of the logjam.
The chairman of the council, therefore, urged Governor Sule and other well-to-do indigenes to assist in reconstructing the secretariat.
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