By Samuel Ogenyi, Uyo
The Akwa Ibom State chapter of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, NUJ has threatened legal action against Ministries, Departments and Organizations frustrating the use of the Freedom of Information, FOI, Act. in the state.
They have also commended some members of the House of Representatives for working against the obnoxious Federal Water Resources Bill.
This was part of the communique reached at the end of its October Congress in Uyo yesterday endorsed by the state chairman, Comrade Amos Etuk and chairman of the Communique Drafting Committee, Comrade Idongesit Ashameri.
According to the communique, “congress notes the consistent refusal of MDAs in Akwa Ibom State to provide certain information requested by journalists, thereby flouting the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, and called on the MDAs to do the needful to avoid a resort to legal action to get the required information.
“Congress commended members of the House of Representatives from Akwa Ibom State for joining forces with some of their colleagues to resist the position held by a lawmaker from Katsina State that the obnoxious National Water Resources Bill had been passed by the House.
“The Bill should not be reintroduced as a fresh Bill and urged them to sustain the resistance among the lawmakers opposed to the Bill and kill it at the commencement stage since the process for ts enactment has started again.
It reaffirmed the endorsement of Comrade Helen Udofa, a former Treasurer of the State Council, by the NUJ, Zone F, at its meeting in Uyo, for the position of National Secretary of the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists, NAWOJ, at the forthcoming Triennial Delegates’ Conference of the association in Minna, Niger State.
The Congress also urged the State Government to step up remedial work in erosion- threatened areas within and outside the capital city and called on relevant agencies of government to regulate dredging activities in the state as many parts of the state is threatened by sand excavation.
