The Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) on Thursday sworn in its first female president, Maureen Chigbo and inducted 21 new members into its fold at its fifth annual conference in Lagos.
Chigbo assumed the leadership of the online publisher’s Guild from Dotun Oladipo, who served out his two terms of four years.
The election and the induction of new members was part of the activities of the fifth annual conference of GOCOP held in Lagos.
At the conference were the representatives of the Lagos State Governor, Gbenga Omotosho, the state commissioner for information, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Faisal Shuaib, who is the Executive Director, National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA) and a numbers of heads of corporate communications of companies and other key government officials.
The newly inducted members of GOCOP include Oludare Mayowa, Editor-in-Chief, Global Financial Digest, Toni Kan, publisher, thisislagos.ng; Dele Fashomi, Editor-in-Chief, IQ4 Media Ltd, Folu Olamiti, Publisher, Newspot; Ignatius Chukwu, Editor-in-chief, SILVER NEWS Online; Victoria Ibanga, Editor-in-Chief, The Next Edition; Ayo Olesin, Editor-in-Chief, The NewsMatrics; Rose Moses, Editor-in-Chief, Newsmart; Dipo Kehinde, Publisher, NewsmakersNG; Joan Chioma Obinagwam, publisher/Editor-in-chief of Confiance News and Biodun Durojaiye, Editor-in-Chief, The Lagos Times.
Others include Tajudeen Abdulkareem, Editor-in-Chief, Credible News; Sakibu Olokojobi, Editor-In-Chief, FrontPage; Dumebi IfeanyiChukwu, Publisher, POLITICS NIGERIA; ; Shola Oshunkeye, President /CEO of The Crest; Muhammad Danjuma Katsina, publisher, Katsina city News; Olumide Bajulaiye, Editor-in-Chief, Daily Dispatch Newspaper and Hassan Gimba, Publisher/Editor-in-Chief, Neptune Prime.
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Equally inducted were Celestine Okafor, Iseoluwa Ige, and Francis Chukwudi.
Speaking at the occasion, the new president of the GOCOP, Maureen Chigbo, restated the group’s commitment to professionalism, integrity, national development and capacity building.
GOCOP is also primed to promote the advancement of journalism as a profession and economic wellbeing of members.
Meanwhile, some of the new members have expressed their happiness over being inducted as members of GOCOP.
In their separate statements, they expressed hope for GOCOP’s continuous promotion of professionalism among other virtues.
The Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Confiance News, Chioma Obinagwam, said “We are all looking up to the leadership of GOCOP to continue to build an association of responsible and highly professional journalists.”
“The leadership must continue to mind the ethics, culture, and business of news media, as it strives to promote activities that will contribute to the professional advancement and economic wellbeing of members,” Dipo Kehinde, publisher of Newsmakers, advised.
Rose Moses, publisher of the Newsmart expressed happiness over her membership. “I am glad to be admitted as a member of this distinguished body of online publishers. I congratulate the members of the executive, both past and present, for the good work they are doing in maintaining ethics and professionalism and for successful hosting of the conference. I have no doubt it’s going to be a pleasurable experience.”
GOCOP is a registered non-governmental, non-partisan, non-profit organisation, comprising owners of online publications who previously worked as professional journalists in major mainstream media organisations
