Lukman Olabiyi and Vera Wisdom-Bassey

The National Industrial Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, today, granted an injunction stopping the 2019 Lagos State chapter of the National Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) elections scheduled for this morning at Radio Lagos, Eko FM, Ikeja Lagos.

 Dozens of women journalists from different media houses in Lagos had gathered at the venue to vote in the elections but were disappointed by the large number of suspected rogue voters and non-women journalists whose number was in excess of 300 persons allegedly assembled for the exercise by the Lagos State Ministry of Information chapter of NAWOJ. The number alone was said to have tripled the number of authentic practicing women journalists in all the mainstream media houses in Lagos.

The rogue journalists many of them were believed to be school girls had lined up to vote.

Court officials who arrived at the venue to serve the court order were allegedly disallowed by some policemen from entering the hall to give the order stopping the election.

NAWOJ members from most of the media houses were said to have boycotted the election in protest thus leading to a fiasco. But some members believed to be from the Lagos State Ministry of Information went on with the voting.

At some point, tension was said to have sky-high leading to some people suspected to be hired thugs of one of the candidates for chairperson throwing the arena into confusion. In the ensuing melee, a leading vice chairperson, Tessy Igomu, of Sun Publishing Ltd, (publishers of Daily, Saturday, Sunday and Sporting Sun newspapers), was molested by one of the men believed to be from the Lagos State Ministry of Information. She was hit twice in the abdomen for allegedly opposing their preferred candidate. Their action caused an uproar, leading to many of the voters leaving the space.