Foundation laying for Editors’ Plaza holds March 1

Mon, Feb 12, 2018 | By publisher


Media

THE foundation stone laying ceremony for the multi-purpose Editors’ Plaza owned by the Nigerian Guild of Editors, NGE, will hold on Thursday, March 1, 2018 at the project site located in the Guzape District of Abuja.

Godswill Akpabio, a senator and former governor of Akwa Ibom State, who is also the Senate minority leader, will chair the event while Abdulsamad Rabiu, foremost industrialist and chairman of BUA Group, will perform the traditional ‘turning of the sod’ to herald the construction of a befitting plaza for Nigerian editors in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.

Mohammed Bello, the minister of the Federal Capital Territory, and Lai Mohammed, his Information and Culture counterpart, are expected to grace the occasion.

Other dignitaries expected at the event are governors, heads of ministries, departments and agencies, MDAs, members of corporate Nigeria, the business community, media executives, etcetera.

The journey of the proposed Editors’ Plaza started on April 10, 2014 with a fund-raiser in Abuja under the leadership of Femi Adesina, the then president of the Guild. The goal was to raise funds to build a befitting secretariat for the Guild in Abuja to be named as Editors’ Plaza. It is worthy to note that in its over 55 years of existence, the Guild does not have a secretariat of its own.

Part of the money realised from the fund-raiser has been used to acquire a property in Ikeja area of Lagos State christened Editors’ House which functions as the Guild’s secretariat in Lagos.

Funke Egbemode, the president of the Guild, said part of the proposed Editors’ Plaza in Abuja would serve as the Guild’s secretariat in Abuja while the rest would be leased to the public as offices.

When completed, the multi-storey edifice which sits on an expansive 5,600Sqm piece of land will add to the vastly changing Abuja landscape.

According to Egbemode, the construction of the Editors’ Plaza offers friends of the Guild, individuals and corporate, and all advocates and lovers of free press an opportunity to partner with Nigerian editors whom she described as the torchbearers of the nation’s democracy and bulwark against tyranny.

– Feb.  12, 2018 @ 16:05 GMT |

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