At least 15 hoodlums were said to have invaded the conference hall of the Bayelsa State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Yenagoa on Thursday and disrupted the union’s
planned emergency meeting.
However, intervention of the police prevented the situation from degenerating into bloodbath as four of the hoodlums were arrested.
It has been learnt that the union, headed by its chairman, Tariyon Akono, had planned to discuss the Ladi Lawal NUJ awards 2014 atbthe emergency meeting when the hoodlums invaded the venue.
The conference was later sealed up by the police authorities in the state which invited officials and members of the union to give statement on the incident.
In a statement signed by the Chairman and Secretary ,Tariyon Akono and Samson Opokuma and four others dismissed reports of a vote of no confidence allegedly passed on the Chairman and Secretary by an executive
member of the union with the connivance of some external forces.
The statement claimed the said executive
member of the union had since abandoned his duty and was behind the plot to cause crisis within the group.
The statement read in part, “The NUJ wishes to state that no member of the union or executive was arrested.
We urge our teeming supporters
and members of the Nigeria Union of
Journalists to be steadfast and go about their noble job as members of the forth estate of the realm and watchdog of the society."
The union also called on the state police
command to investigate the crisis and bring the perpetrators to book.
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