GOCOP Presidency: Danlami Nmodu beats Segun Adeleye to it, as Sufuyan Ojeifo emerges General Secretary

● Olumide Iyanda, four others get NEC positions

In a defiant move that upended the tradition of electing its leadership through consensus, the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers, GOCOP was, on Wednesday, subjected to over one and a half hours of voting that produced Danlami Mmodu, mni, publisher of Newsdiary Online as president.

Nmodu floored publisher and CEO of World Stage Newsonline, Mr Segun Adeleye, who spurned overtures to him to allow the ceding of the presidency to the northern part of the country in the spirit of rotational leadership and regional representation.

THE CONCLAVE reports that the Guild had traditionally been led by members from various zones in the Southern region, and that despite the Guild’s growth and inclusivity, a member from the North of the country had never held the position of President in the Guild’s decade-long existence.

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The election had thus presented a unique opportunity to demonstrate the Guild’s commitment to rotational leadership and regional representation.

The vast majority of the Guild’s membership had supported the ceding of the presidency to the north and rooted for Danlami Nmodu, who garnered 63 votes to defeat Segun Adeleye who scored 17 votes.

The election was presaged by a two- minute pitch by both candidates to address the general assembly of the Guild on their manifestos.

The Guild was able to build consensus around the remaining six offices of Deputy President, General Secretary, Deputy General Secretary, Financial Secretsry, Treasurer, and Publicity Secretary.

The Guild gave its consequential affirmative votes to Olumide Iyanda, publisher of QEDNG for the position of Deputy President, Sufuyan Ojeifo, publisher of THE CONCLAVE for the post of General Secretary, and Akeem Oyetunji, publisher of Prompt News, for the position of Deputy General Secretary.

The others are Ngozi Onyeakusi, publisher of Supernews Online [Treasurer], Moses Ebosele, publisher of City Business News Online [Financial Secretary] and Kemi Yesufu, publisher of Frontline News Online [Publicity Secretary].

Bode George, Masari for GOCOP 2025 Annual Conference on Thursday in Lagos, to address Nigeria’s governance realities

The exco has a two- year tenure to serve in the first instance, which is renewable, if it performs to the satisfaction of members of the Guild, for and not exceeding a second two-year term through election [affirmative votes].

In a recap of the election by the Chairman of the Electoral Committee, Mr Yusuf Ozi-Usman, “Out of a total of 120 registered members as of October 8, 114 were qualified, by the provision of GOCOP constitution to vote and be voted for.

“Of the 114, 80 members attended the Annual General Congress (Meeting)

“Out of the 80 members that attended, 71 members physically cast their votes

“9 members did e-voting (outside the venue.
So, the total votes cast (71 + 9) were 80

“Two candidates contested for President and the votes each got were:

“a. Segun Adeleye: 15 votes (physical + 2 e-votes, total= 17 votes

“b. Danlami Nmodu, mni got 56 votes (physical) and 7 e-votes total= 63 votes
So, Danlami Nmodu, mni was declared duly elected President of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP).

“Other positions such as
a. Deputy President (Olumide Iyanda)
b. General Secretary (Sufuyan Ojeifo)
c. Deputy General Secretary (Akeem Oyetunji)
d. Treasurer (Ngozi Onyeakusi
e. Financial Secretary (Moses Ebosele) and
f. Publicity Secretary (Kemi Yesufu) were won through unanimous affirmative votes duly cast for them.”

Secretary of the Committee, Victoria Ibanga endorsed the report along with Yusuf Ozi-Usman.