A ‘thank you’ gift of twenty five million naira (N25,000,000,000.00) presented to the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Delta State council, and Delta Online Publishers Forum (DOPF) by the state governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, has teared men of the pen profession apart in the state.
Okowa, during an inauguration of a new Government House Press Centre cum Media chat on March 13, 2023, was said to have dolled out N25m to the NUJ, Delta State Council and the DOPF as a way of appreciating the press, especially the role of the media in promoting government policies and programmes in the state.
Trouble, however, started when the largesse was shared by the Chairman, Delta NUJ, Comarde Mike Ikeogwu to the various Correspondents chapels in the state and members of the DOPF.
The DOPF in a protest statement jointly signed by it Chairman, Emmanuel Enebeli and Secretary, Shedrack Onitsha, which was sighted by INFO DAILY, accused the Ikeogwu-led Delta NUJ of short changing the Forum, lamenting that out of the N25m given to the media in the state, only N300,000.00 was shared to DOPF.
While further stating that over N10m was not shared out of the N25m neither was it accountrd for, the DOPF said: “Delta Online Publishers Forum, DOPF as a body was invited to the programme like any other body, including the NUJ Delta State Council through the office of the Public Relations Officer, Government House, Asaba. This has been the tradition between us and the State Government in the event of any activity that will require us to attend, like in other times, we attended in our numbers.
“Right after the media chat, there was tension, and apprehension about what will happen to the money, considering the antecedent of the current leadership of the NUJ Delta State Council whenever money is given together, and as usual, they didn’t disappoint us, as they allowed their GREED to take a better part of the sharing formula.
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“We discovered that the NUJ Delta State Council, after much delay from 13 March 2023 to March 22, 2023, released a sharing structure thus: The correspondents Asaba were given N3.2 million; Warri Correspondents, N2.2 million; Indigenous Correspondents; N750,000.00; Ughelli Chapel, N750,000.00; Sapele Chapel, N400,000.00; Association of Community Newspapers of Nigeria, N300,000.00 and DOPF N300, 000.00.
“This we consider belittling and insulting to DOPF and its members.
“We discovered that NUJ Delta State Council didn’t disburse up to N10m from the Governor’s gift to Chapels and other groups; hence we have rejected the money and sent it back to the NUJ Delta State Council, through the Chairman, Mr Mike Ikeogwu,” the statement added.
Contacted, Chairman, NUJ, Delta State council, Comrade Ikeogwu reacted: “I am not joining issues with DOPF.”