NUJ Disowns National Vice President, Cosmas Oni

By Abdulrofiu Agboola

The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Osun State Council on Thursday passed vote of no confidence on the National Vice President B Zone, of the union Mr. Cosmas Oni, just as it called on the National President, Mr Waheed Odusile not to delegate him on any assignment in the state.

Members of the union at the Congress attended by nine Chapel Chairmen and Secretaries held at the Olu-Osungboun Hall, NUJ Press Centre Osogbo, accused Oni of “ supervising criminality and fueling unnecessary crisis in the state council of the union.

From Right: Mr Cosmas Oni administering Oath of Office to Abiodun Olalere after the February 11 Osun NUJ election.

The congress which was presided over by the Acting Chairman of the Osun NUJ, Mr Kehinde Ayantunji condemned in its totality, the violent posture of some individuals who are claiming to be caretaker members of the union.

The NUJ members urged the members of the public to disregard what the tagged ‘husband and wife’ caretaker committee, saying that the two members of the committee, Ojuolape Ukeme-Bassey and Adegboyega Aderinwale were still on indefinite suspension since May.

In a communiqués issued after the congress, the union accused the vice president of double standard, dishonesty, deliberate degrading of the union executives in the state and supervision of criminal activities.

“The communiqué reads: The conduct of the NUJ Vice President, Zone B, Mr Cosmas Oni, has become a source of concern to the right thinking individuals in Osun NUJ and we challenged him to explain why he is hell-bent in destabilizing our union.

“This is a man that supervised the processes of the conduct of the February 11, 2016 election of the NUJ, conducted the election, announced the results, administered oath of office on the elected Chairman and Secretary, Mr Biodun Olalere and Bola Bamigbola respectively.

“This same man wrote a report, after a month of the election, that there were irregularities in the election he conducted. We should not forget that Cosmas Oni is the same man that collected professional dues from members of the union in the state but failed to remit all.

“During Ramadam, the same man came to the Press Centre, and asked thugs to break offices of our union and carted away valuable documents that are nowhere to be found till now.

“As at the period of this congress, the 22-seater NUJ Bus has been stolen with the aid of the purported caretaker committee members, who are being supported Cosmos Oni. They forcefully broke the door and ignition of the bus valued at N8 Million donated by the state government and carted it away. People should know that the NUJ bus with number plate 002 is a stolen bus and its occupants are thieves as at present.

The union said Oni and the caretaker committee has been dragging the name of the union into the mud, reiterating that neither he nor the caretaker members were representing the interest of the union in the state.

“He also single handedly scuttled the rescheduled election. The Deputy National Sectary had pasted the list of delegate for the second elections until the arrival of Mr Cosmos who smuggled a list of 187 Local Government chapel members against the accredited 81 members of the chapel and attempted to use it to rig the election.

The union, however, urged its members to be law abiding and resist all provocations that will further drag the image of the union into the mud.