The Guild of Online Media Practitioners of Oyo State (GOMPOS) has alleged that there is a plot to disenfranchise its members from participating in the election of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Oyo Council, scheduled to hold on Tuesday, 9 December, 2025.
The Guild, which is the officially recognised and duly inaugurated online chapel of the NUJ Oyo Council, stated this on Thursday in a release signed by its chairman, Comrade Femi Atoyebi and Secretary, Comrade Dapo Falade.
GOMPOS demanded that the NUJ refund the sum of Seven Hundred and Fifty Thousand (₦750,000) Naira, being the sum 25 of its members paid to the National Secretariat for the 2025 Annual Due and Identity Cards.
The online chapel stated that it is coming into the open to make public the intent of some members of the outgoing Comrade Ademola Babalola-led leadership of the Oyo Council to disenfranchise GOMPOS members, allegedly in connivance with some people at the NUJ National Secretariat.
It noted that the plot has been on for a while when the outgoing chairman of the Oyo Council declared at the July Congress that GOMPOS members cannot vote in the election, claiming that its members are publishers and not reporters.
A counter-claim was made by one of our leaders present at the Congress, stating that the online chapel, having paid its dues, was officially recognised and duly inaugurated by the same Comrade Ademola Babalola in November 2022.
Since then, efforts were being made to persuade the NUJ leadership, both at the national and state levels, to see reasons and allow GOMPOS members to, at least, vote in the forthcoming election.
Documents attesting to the eligibility of members of the online chapel to exercise their voting rights, among other privileges, and in line with the NUJ Constitution, were forwarded to the National Secretariat.
On 20 November 2025, the NUJ National Secretary, Comrade Achike Achude, called the GOMPOS Secretary, Comrade Dapo Falade, to make some enquiries about the eligibility or otherwise of members of the chapel to vote at the forthcoming election.
He particularly requested that he should be given a superior argument to support the status of GOMPOS as the online chapel of the NUJ Oyo Council.
Comrade Achude said during the conversation that he would ensure fairness and justice in the course of the Oyo NUJ election.
Comrade Falade went down memory lane to explain to the NUJ National Secretary that GOMPOS was duly inaugurated in November 2022 by the Oyo State Council, having met all the required rules and procedures.
He further explained that the online chapel was, coincidentally, inaugurated by the outgoing chairman, Comrade Babalola.
Asking what has changed between 2022, when GOMPOS was inaugurated, and 2025, and on the eve of the State Council election, Comrade Falade pleaded with the NUJ National Secretariat, through the National Secretary, to allow the online members to vote in the election, in the interest of peace, justice and fairness.
On Sunday, 30 November, 2025, Comrade Falade called the NUJ National Secretary to ask about the fate of GOMPOS in respect of the election.
The National Secretary directed the GOMPOS Secretary to speak with the NUJ National President, Alhaji Alhassan Yayha, on the matter.
Comrade Falade immediately called the President and explained the situation of things to him and also pleaded with him to allow reason to reign supreme and ensure justice.
Responding, the President claimed that he was in the dark as our file had not been brought to his table, as of Sunday. He promised to call our secretary back.
But apparently acting in tandem with the plan by the Oyo State Council to disenfranchise us, the NUJ President has not lived up to his promise to call and neither has he picked up calls made to him since Tuesday, up to Wednesday evening.
The action of the NUJ President prompted and necessitated three long WhatsApp messages to him and none of which he has responded to since Monday till Wednesday evening.
Copies of the WhatsApp messages were also sent to the National Secretary, Comrade Achude, followed by a call to him on Tuesday evening, which lasted more than 30 minutes.
It is in view of the following, and the cold silence of the NUJ national leadership, that we, members of GOMPOS and as a duly recognised and inaugurated online chapel of the Oyo State Council, make public a grand plan to disenfranchise us in the forthcoming election.
More importantly, it is becoming quite glaring that the Union is set to deny us our rights and privileges as a recognised chapel in the Oyo NUJ Council.
Of what benefit is the NUJ to GOMPOS, if its members would be denied their rights and privileges, the forthcoming Oyo Council election being a fundamental part of the said rights and privileges?
We are not benefiting from the NUJ as a body. Rather, we are giving much to the Union, while we are receiving practically nothing in return.
NUJ Oyo Council has 22 chapels recognised and inaugurated, but now the chapels have been reduced to 11, shortly before the coming election. The question is, what is responsible for such a sharp and drastic reduction?
It should be recalled that Comrade Ademola Babalola had, during the inauguration of GOMPOS in November 2022, declared, among others, that the members of the chapel are entitled to all the rights and privileges as enjoyed by members of the other chapels within the Oyo NUJ Council.
Pursuant to this, GOMPOS, as the Oyo Online Chapel, was represented at the Triennial Delegates Conference, held in Owerri, Imo State in November 2024, and which produced the present national leadership of the NUJ.
We are therefore demanding that, if we are eventually not allowed to vote in the Oyo State Council election, our 2025 Annual Due and payment for the Identity Cards should be refunded without any further delay, on or before Monday, 8 December, 2025.
