Few weeks after allegedly procuring an award on Mr Nsima Ekere, Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the Chairman of the Correspondents chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Akwa Ibom State, Mr Dennis Udoma, has been axed by his colleagues.

Mr. Udoma is alleged to have collected a whooping N3.3 million from the NDDC Czar with which he organised the award ceremony without due interaction with his colleagues and other members of his executive council.

Despite no physical evidence of any achievement since assumption of office, Mr Ekere was invited solely to an obviously hurriedly packaged award ceremony and honoured for his outstanding achievements in office as NDDC boss.

This surprised most journalists who decided to embark on trips round the so-called listed projects, only to be accosted by a litany of failed, uncompleted and abandoned projects.

They were also disturbed that an agency that had refused to embark on a single healthcare programme, or skills acquisition project in the entire state, despite its position as the largest oil producer, could be honoured with a rare award from their chapel.

This propelled the journalists to conduct independent probes of the award ceremony only to discover a transaction of over N3.3 million allegedly transferred to their chairman, Dennis Udoma, from the former deputy governor.

Angered by the development, the Correspondent Chapel called for an explanation from Mr Udoma, who rather went AWOL avoiding the numerous invitations.

In a release signed by the Acting chairman, Iniobong Ekponta, and Secretary, Bassey Bassey, the chapel announced that it suspended Mr Udoma of the Vanguard newspaper from the chapel for lack of transparency in management of over N3.3m and lodging same in private accounts, as well as his refusal to honour the chapel’s summons.

The decision, as stated in the release, was taken at a 20-man attended congress on Wednesday October 11, 2017.

Suspended from the union alongside Dennis Udoma was Mr Tony Anichebe of the New Telegraph newspaper.