By Francis Nansak,Lafia
The Nasarawa State chapter of the Sports Writers Association (SWAN) recently conducted election but the position of the chairman was however declared inconclusive,this followed a competitive and keenly contested exercise leading to the top contenders scoring equal votes.
Giving this background the electoral umpire in their wisdom while they declared winners into the various positions contested for except that of the chairman held that the election of the chairmanship was inconclusive,as such it set up Tuesday 9/7/2024 for a rerun.
Having perfected all modalities the winner has emerged.
It would be be recalled that SWAN election earlier conducted election to field in new exco last month, all other elected position was perfected as the exercise ended seamlessly, leaving the post for chairman which was declared inconclusive.
The Isaac Ukpoju-led committee has after Tuesday rerun declared the new officials after the peaceful re-run election that took place at the Nasarawa State Secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Lafia.
Chairman of the electoral committee, Isacc Ukpoju of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) announced Smah George of the state owned Nasarawa Broadcasting Service (NBS) as winner having scored 18 votes to defeat his opponent, Solomon Abari of Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) who secured 9 votes.
He went on to announcing Umar Mohammed of Daily Trust as Vice Chairman, Abel Leonard of The Sun Newspaper as Secretary, Nehemiah Gwamna of Radio Nigeria (Precious FM Lafia) as Financial Secretary, while Esther Akaa of the Voice Newspaper emerged as Treasurer.
Speaking shortly after the inauguration of the new executive members, National Secretary General of SWAN, Ikenna Okonkwo commended members of the association in the state and the candidates for the display of maturity during the election.
In his acceptance speech, the newly sworn-in chairman appreciated members for speaking through their votes that give him an age over other contestants and pledged not to disappoint them.
The Nasarawa State SWAN chairman also promised to work with his opponent and all members of the association in order to make the association viable in the state.
George announced that the association under his leadership would partner government and other stakeholders to promote sports development in the state.