Lagos SWAN rejects national election guidelines

Members of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria in Lagos State on Friday rejected the election guidelines as issued by the national body of the union.
The decision of SWAN Lagos State Chapter to reject the election guidelines was taken at an emergency Congress held at its Secretariat, National Stadium, Surulere.
A communique signed by the secretary of SWAN Lagos, Bunmi Ogunyale, on behalf of the communique drafting committee, said that the Emergency Congress deliberated on issues of the sanctity of the Association and resolved as follows:
He said: “That we reject the Guidelines for the 2019 SWAN National Election as published by the SWANECO especially with regards to:
“Stipulated fees for the collection of forms which are excessive; the cumbersome process of screening which takes almost a week, non-specification of date and venue of the election.
“The requirement in Paragraph 6 for state chapter delegates to be approved by the National Secretariat which goes against democratic principles in that the Constitution of the NUJ and SWAN Statutes have clearly spelt out the eligibility of delegates and voters
“The provision in Paragraph 11 which requires that candidates for the positions of President and Secretary General must have been or be members of the National Executive Council, in that the provision is at variance with Article 6(7)(c) of the NUJ Constitution and Article 13 (1) of the SWAN Statutes.
“That it commends the Chairman of SWANECO for resigning his position in disagreement with those provisions.
“That it urges the National Executive Council to amend the Electoral Guidelines in conformity with the provision of the NUJ Constitution and the SWAN Statutes.
“That it condemns the action the National President in petitioning members to the Directorate of State Services and the Police without due recourse to the internal mechanism for dispute resolution in the NUJ and SWAN.
“That the SWAN NEC should urgently intervene on these issues with view to repositioning the electoral process on the path of decency and normalcy.
“That the NUJ should urgently intervene to check and abort the tendencies for tyranny and dictatorship in the institution of SWAN.”
Other members of the communuque drafting committee were listed as follows: Femi Solaja, Chairman, Patrick Ibeh, Humphrey Njoku, Jacob Ajom, Abolore Abdulrahman and Sulaiman Adebayo (Pooja).