-Impersonate Vice President’s position
The last may not have been heard about the alleged criminal plot of the dissident self acclaimed chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Imo state council, Chris Akaraonye, the immediate past chairman of the union, Sir Innocent Igwe and their accomplices, including the national president of the union, as more facts have emerged about their, fraudulent and atrocious but failed plot to outrightly sell the union’s secretariat to a former governor of the state without the consent of Imo journalists.
In a bid to perfect their nefarious act, Innocent Igwe who was until his emergence as chairman of the union, was a staff of the Imo Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) presented himself as National Vice President of the NUJ while Akaraonye who retired from the Ministry of Information as a photographer signed as state chairman.
It was gathered that the duo of Akaraonye and Igwe allegedly received advance payment of N20 Million which they shared amongst themselves and other accomplices and were expecting the balance of N78m before luck ran out on them when committed members of the union got wind of it, truncated the ill-intentioned deal and exposed them.
It has also been revealed that the current Chairman, National Association of Women Journalists, NAWOJ ,Imo State Chapter, Barr Vivian Otti was at some point approached to endorse the fraudulent deal but she backed out which was why she fell out of favour with them.
According to Ottih , “I was taken unawares when the issue was raised at a meeting convened by the National President, Chris Isiguzo. The first question I asked them was if it has been discussed at Congress and journalists consulted. They shouted at me saying that I should not bother about anything because the proposed buyer has the capacity to take care of whatever that will come out of it and also protect us. At that point I walked out of the meeting because I can’t imagine working against the interest of my professional coleagues. From that moment, they drew that battle line and have fought me relentlessly on all fronts”.
According to an insider source, the recent astounding revelations has further agitated and provoked the Comrade Precious Nwadike led caretaker committee into steping up their demand for justice.
The union which had earlier petitioned the Imo state commissioner of police to investigate the circumstances that led to the vandalization of the union’s secretariat and bring the culprits to book is also insisting that the duo of Chris Akaraonye and Innocent Igwe be dragged to anti graft agencies for explanation.
“The leadership and members of the union are disappointed that Akaraonye, Igwe and their co-conspirators, rather than explain to the Union what went wrong and plead for soft landing when it dawned on them that the burble had burst, ran to the Commissioner for Information,Mr Declan Emelumba for protection. This is and will remain their albatross because justice must not only prevail but seen to have prevailed. They went beyond reasonable limits in their nefarious antics.”
“Can you imagine that aside vandalizing the secretariat, they turned the facility to a brothel, rented part of it out to tenants and appropriated all the revenue that should have gone into the coffers of the union to themselves”,revealed a source.
