A Non-Governmental Organisation, NGO known as Alliance for Justice, Advocacy and Humanitarian Foundation, AJAHF has sought partnership with the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Ebonyi State Council in defence of humanity.
LR: NUJ Chairman Ebonyi State Council - Comrade Samson Nwafor and AJAHF President - Dr Martins Itumoh.
The President of the Foundation, Dr Martins Itumoh made this request this Wednesday when he and his team paid a courtesy visit to the Ebonyi NUJ Chairman, Comrade Samson Nwafor at his office, Dr Sam Egwu Press Centre Abakaliki, the State capital.
Itumoh described the AJAHF as a registered non-governmental organisation with biases for human rights advocacy, promotion of justice and humanitarian intervention projects.
He commended the men of the Fourth Estate of the Realm for having contributed a lot in promoting humanitarian services in the state and expressed his conviction that their collaborative effort with the body in the defence of the public especially the oppressed would largely attract more positive change in society.
He said: "AJAHF has similar roles that are very sacrificial like those of the journalists in the society. We understand that in most other places like outside Nigeria, it's the work of strong journalists or media organisations to correct certain things which ordinarily would have gone wrong in the society. As I said, we have a similar action, because we render services to humanity.
"Our prison system especially in developing countries is populated with innocent people.
"Even abroad, you have people who are innocent and they are in prison but the proportion of innocent people in prison is significantly higher in Africa and I think that it is why Jesus said that if people deserve to be in prison and they are not, they will cause more trouble and other people will lose their lives.
"There are people that are behind bars for a reason that is not the right reason and these are the people we also hope to come to their aid and do whatever we can to give them support.
"When they are behind bars and we are praying, the only way God will respond to that prayer is if there are people outside that will come to their aid.
"So, one of the things we will be trying to do is to seek partnership with other organizations to facilitate us with the abilities to speak for those who do not have anyone to speak on their behalf.
"On our part, we will be collaborating seriously with you the NUJ for instance, to improve on our investigative journalism. We are determined to encourage investigative journalism because there is a limit to journalism practice in African countries, but we have to collaborate with Amnesty International to ensure the success of this foundation by promoting justice and humanitarian projects or programmes," he added.
Earlier, the AJAHF Director of Operations, Monday Eze expressed sadness at the alleged extortions of Ebonyi State citizens and arbitrary charges by some agencies in the state to render services that were supposed to be free to the people.
Eze noted that the organization has written to the state government for the partnership to enable it to hold some agencies in the state accountable.
He said, "In Ebonyi, people are still asked to pay for light prepaid meters, estimated billing is also done in Ebonyi State and we don't want it because these are the ways Ebonyi people are shortchanged."
In his response, the Ebonyi State NUJ Chairman, Comrade Samson Nwafor commended the AJAHF members for identifying with his office and assured them of a robust partnership.
"As a union whose primary responsibility is to advocate for the people who somehow cannot advocate for themselves, we are going to work together. We also do humanitarian services because we barely pay for them.
"Maybe in other countries, journalists are well paid, but in this place, all we do is a humanitarian service. Looking at the core values of this organisation, which are justice, advocacy and humanitarian intervention, it is just what we do as a union. It's a marriage of like mind. Your coming to collaborate with our union is a welcome development. It means we are going to have a smooth operation and alignment to serve society better as a union committed to promoting justice, advocating for people, fighting societal ills and engaging in humanitarian services."
