Election: Judge summons NAWOJ, NUJ officials
Election: Judge summons NAWOJ, NUJ officials
Election: Judge summons NAWOJ, NUJ officials
Justice R. Gwandu of the National Industrial Court in Lagos has summoned four officials of the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists and the Nigeria Union of Journalists for allegedly disobeying a May 23 court order.

The judge summoned the officials on Thursday after he was told that they disobeyed an interim order stopping the conduct of NAWOJ election, which held last Thursday.

Those summoned by the judge are Ekene Adeola, of the Lagos State Ministry of Information; Ladi Bala, of the NUJ Secretariat, Abuja; Abiola Becky, of Ray Power, Alagbado; and Yemisi Adeniran, of the FRCN, Ikoyi, Lagos.

Justice Gwandu, in a ruling, said the officials must appear before him on June 10 with their lawyers or risk being charged with contempt of court.

“This court order is for summons of the above named persons to appear in court with their counsel on the 10th day of June, 2019.

“Failure to adhere to this official court summons shall be treated as contempt of the order of this court.

“Service of this court order shall be by court bailiff escorted by the chief security officer of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria,” Justice Gwandu said.

A bailiff of the court, Mr Olaomoju Moses, had told the judge, under oath, that he was prevented from entering a hall at LTV 8, Agidingbi, Alausa, Ikeja, where the Lagos NAWOJ election was conducted.

The bailiff said, “I met some policemen at the hall entrance with one of their leaders; his name is Adekunle Oyewole.

“I introduced myself to them; I told them what I came to do. They said I could not enter; that the election was about to start. They refused to allow me to enter. I stood there for about one hour. Some women came and chased me away.”

The interim order granted by the judge to stop the election was made in favour of the Chairperson of NAWOJ, Lagos Chapter, Hajia Sekinah Lawal.

Lawal’s lawyer, Mr Omotayo Olatunbosun, told the judge that the officials used policemen and thugs to frustrate the service of the court order.


In this article:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *