Premium Times, an online news medium in Nigeria notable for Investigative Journalism has indicated intentions to train Information Officers working in the thirty-one Local Government Councils in Akwa Ibom State on Community reporting.
Mr. Cletus Ukpong, the Assistant Managing Editor of Premium Times said this on Tuesday, 12 April 2022 at the 2022 Week of Local Government Information Chapel (LOGIC), Nigeria, Union of Journalists.
The Week is an annual event of the Chapel where Information Officers working in the Local Government Councils who are members of the Nigeria Union of Journalists are trained
Ukpong who was one of the resource persons at the event identified the need to sharpen the skills of Information Officers and promised to liaise with his organization in training them.
Speaking on the topic “ News Writing and Crafting of Headlines, he urged Information Officers to have the “ nose for news in their communities stating that Premium Times would publish any good community news article sent in by Information Officers.
The 2022 LOGIC Week which had in attendance over One Hundred and Fifteen Information Officers and Media Aides to Council Chairmen with the Theme “ Effective Information Management for Grassroots Development; the Role of information Officer was declared open by the Chairman of Akwa Ibom State Local Government Service Commission, Hon. Monday Eyo.
Hon. Eyo During his declaration appreciated the facilitators of the event and encourage them to keep the flag flying.
In her welcome remarks , the Chairman of the Chapel, Comrade Roseline Etukudo noted that the closest information managers to the grassroots are the Local Government Information Officers.
Comrade Etukudo said that to inform the rural people properly, the managers need to be trained and retrained on good reportorial skills and praised the calibre of resource persons chosen by the planning committee for the year.
“This year’s Chapel week has presented us with an opportunity to sit under the tutelage of renowned and award-winning professionals and I am certain on Wednesday, April 13, 2022, we will return to our workplaces loaded and ready to break all biases and rule our territories professionally”
Other resource persons at the Chapel Week include Pastor Anietie Ukpe, Director General, Akwa Ibom State Broadcasting Corporation(AKBC), Mr. Sam Uko, Fellow Nigerian Institute of Public Relations(NIPR) among others.
