Falana Threatens Legal Action Against NUJ

Femi Falana, foremost human right activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), has warned the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) to desist from foisting illegal processing on the union to conduct elections into the elective seats at the Lagos State Council of the union.

Falana vowed to sue the NUJ in a petition dated November 3, 2020 addressed to Chris Isiguzo, the National President of the NUJ, if the Lagos State council poll slated for Thursday, November 5 2020 is conducted with the exclusion of about 3000 journalists on the basis of illegal verification carried out by the national officers of the of the body and the electoral committee.

He condemned the attempt to disenfranchise valid and bonafide members of the union in several chapels from exercising their franchise during the poll.

According to the release titled: Request to halt the planned exclusion of 3000 members of Lagos Council of the NUJ from participating in the forthcoming election of NUJ, he stated thus:

“Our clients have confirmed that the electoral committee plans to exclude not less than 3000 members of the Lagos State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists drawn from The Guardian, TELL Magazine, Business Plus Magazine, The Nation Newspapers, Local Government Chapel, FRCN, Voice of Nigeria (VON), Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and the New Telegraph Newspapers from participating in the forthcoming election of the Lagos NUJ scheduled to hold on November 5, 2020.

“The purported exclusion is said to have been based on the illegal verification conducted by the electoral committee of the NUJ in the utter breach of Article 6.7 (1) of the NUJ Constitution which stipulates that all bonafide members in good financial standing are eminently qualified to exercise their franchise.”