Borno Correspondent Chapel elects new executives

Uthman Abubakar of Peoples Daily as Chairman, Timothy Olaruwaju of the Sun as Secretary and Muhammad Al-amin of DW as member.

By Solomon Jo

Mr Inusa Ndahi, a senior Correspondent with Vanguard Newspaper, has been re-elected as the Chairman, Correspondent Chapel, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Borno State Council.

Ndahi, who served his first tenure, won in a keenly contested election against his opponent, Gbenga Akingbule to retain his seat after the 2025 triennial chapel’s congress held in Maiduguri, on Saturday.

The election, which was monitored by the state council of NUJ, was conducted by a three-man Electoral Committee.

Uthman Abubakar of Peoples Daily as Chairman, Timothy Olaruwaju of the Sun as Secretary and Muhammad Al-amin of DW as member.

Declaring the winner, the electoral Chairman, Abubakar said
Ndahi scored 14 votes to defeat Akingbule of Wall Street Journal that garnered 12 votes out of the total 26 votes.

“Having scored the highest votes, and the powers vested in me, I declared Inusa Ndahi Marama of Vanguard Newspaper as Chairman of our great Chapel” he said.

Also elected is Wim Bitrus of Channels Television as Assistant Secretary, who defeated his rival Atiku Galadima of Tribune Newspaper by 13 votes against 12.

Seven (7) out of the nine (9) sought for were unopposed, this include the vice chairman, Hamza Suleiman of NAN, the Secretary, Ismaila Alfa of New York times,

Others are the financial secretary, Ahmed Mari, the Auditor, Francis Okoye of leadership Newspaper and the Treasurer, Bilyaminu Yusuf of RFI.

In his acceptance speech, the returned chairman thanked the chapel members and the electoral committee for making time out of the tide schedules to participate in the election.

Ndahi who is the immediate past chairman of chapel pledged to consolidate all the gains he recorded relying on the collective support of the chapel members.

He thanked the members for believing in him through their overwhelming votes, and expressed gratitude to the Commissioner of Information and Internal Security, Prof Usman Tar, represented by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Aliyu Chamalwa, Special Adviser to Governor Babagana Zulum on Media, Malam Dauda Iliya.

Others are Senior Special Assistant on Media, Comrade Babasheikh Haruna and Senior Technical Assistant on Print and Digital Communication, Ahmed Buni and Image makers of Borno Police Command, Theatre Commander North East ‘Operation Hadin Kai’ all attended the opening ceremony, where they pledged to continue work together with working Journalists who are critical stakeholders in peace and national development.

Chairmen and Secretaries of other chapels including NTA, Federal Information, University of Maiduguri among other chapels also graced the occasion.

The Chairman of NUJ, Comrade Abdulkareem Haruna, who administered oath of office and that of Allegiance to the newly elected leaders, enjoined them to be committed and operate an open door policy in discharging their mandates.