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NUSOJ
Holds Its General Assembly And Refutes IFJ Statement Over Armed
Robbery at The Union Office In
Mogadishu,
24 May, 2011
The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) is holding
its General Assembly in Mogadishu's Ambassador Hotel on 28 -
29 May, 2011 with the delegates from the respective regions
arrived in Mogadishu and some are on their way to Mogadishu
to the the General Assembly.
NUSOJ
removed its previous leadership on February 10, 2011 in a meeting
held at Sahafi Hotel in Mogadishu and elected temporary office
bearers whose responsibilities was to prepare General Assembly
where general Elections of the new office bearers will be taking
place.
The
Theme of the General Assembly is: "Leadership and Strategic
Planning Congress towards Strong union in Solidarity with Somali
Journalists." and The respective delegates will decide
NUSOJ policy for the next three years. They will also elect
the office bearers for the next three years.
"We
are glad that today, the interim leaders of the Unions have
completed their transitional period and we welcome the General
Assembly which is a long awaited." Said Burhaan Daahir
Ahmed, NUSOJ Supreme Council president, "We are proud that
it is time for the Somali Journalists elect their leaders for
the next three years."
Meanwhile,
The National Union of Somali Journalists is surprised by the
the IFJ's statement over the armed robbery of the union office
which is a biased and unbalanced information through an individual
who has been removed from the Office in February and Omar Faruk
has no legitimacy to speak on behalf of the union, since he
was democratically removed from the office.
The
National union of the Somali journalists has taken these decisions
after witnessing massive corruption within the union leadership,
testimonies from several supposed beneficiaries of the IFJ safety
fund who stated that they never received any assistance, lack
of executive and supreme council meeting. Our constitution states
under Article TEN, part 3: "The Supreme Council shall meet
at least once in every six months". General Assembly met
Baidoa, Somalia, 20-21 July 2006, since then, NUSOJ leadership
failed to convene a General Assembly who was to meet once a
year according to our constitution under ARTICLE NINE, part
1: "A General Assembly (GA) shall be held once every year
at such time and place as decided by the Executive Committee."
The former leadership also failed to hold elections due in every
three years according to the constitution under Article TEN,
part 9: which says, "The General Assembly shall elect chairperson,
senior vice chairperson and vice chairpersons for a period of
three years." Which are all constitutional violations.
The
union officials after noting all the above provisions in the
constitution decided to remove the Secretary General and the
president of the supreme council, which was at the time necessary
to decide to save union from a total collapse and restore the
image of the union, credibility, accountability, transparency
and good governance, to maintain serving the Somali journalists
who are working under critical conditions in this war-torn country.
The union officials indicted Omar Faruk Osman to the regional
court in Mogadishu upon receiving the information of his arrival
in Mogadishu on 13 March, 2011 for union money fraud, corruption
and mismanagement but unfortunately he later escaped from the
Justice. The union officials also requested the office of the
attorney general to issue a travel ban until the case against
him will over, after the union officials confirmed that he was
a flight risk.
The executive committee of the National Union of Somali Journalists
met an extra ordinary meeting at its Office in Mogadishu on
24 May, 2011 and discussed various topics on the union business
and among others decided That independent bodies conduct investigations
over Omar Faruk's claim and that funds of the union for last
two years be investigated, since it has been misused by its
former Secretary General, Omar Faruk Osman.
"We are alarmed by the IFJ's statement of its claim of
armed robbery of our office, but luckily We are not the only
people left on the ground in Mogadishu,." said Mohammed
Ibrahim, NUSOJ Interim Secretary General, "there are civil
society organizations, human rights organizations and defenders
government institutions, UN bodies in the country and other
independent organizations who can be reached for verification
and we call them to conduct a thorough independent investigation
over the case."
"We
are at NUSOJ office and the interim office bearers have been
working in the office since February 10, 2011, which was when
Omar was removed from the office and will not rest until we
stand Omar Faruk a fair trail" Ibrahim added noting that
the era of the lawlessness and robbery claim has gone and NUSOJ
will not further tolerate bare attacks on its legitimacy.
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