Nigeria Content Online

Eleven
workers of a firm owned by former vice president Atiku Abubakar,
recruited from Lagos for the installation and commissioning of a
hi-tech printing technology, “Atlantic Sizer”, are now stranded in
Yola, the Adamawa State capital, after their sack.

The sacked workers
claim that the management of Abti Press Group of Companies terminated
their appointment on May 4, “without any tenable reason.” They said
this was done after they had been “used” by the company to achieve its
aim of commissioning the “Hi-tech scratch card making facility”,
imported from Germany.

They narrated their
ordeal shortly after been quizzed by the police at the Special
Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) office of the Adamawa Police State
Headquarters, the result of a complaint brought by the management of
Abti Press against the sacked workers on “threats” being issued by the
group.

The sacked workers,
however, explained that their protest was based on the “refusal of the
company to pay us our due entitlement.”

‘We were naive’

Akinrinola
Akintunde, the leader of the sacked workers regretted that they
“naively” took the offer of employment on the “strength of the name” of
Mr. Abubakar, without getting the management to commit in writing to
some of the verbal agreement reached before their offer of employment.

“The 10 of us
recruited from Lagos were all comfortable and living fine but then came
this organisation from Yola and they said it was owned by the former
vice president, Atiku Abubakar,” he said. “We failed to see the other
side and thought to ourselves the grass would be greener here, only to
come to this miserable end.”

The workers, who
claimed they are protesting against “modern slavery”, pointed out that
they are not ignorant of the fact that the company wanted to keep
afloat. Another of the worker, Odiase Ronald noted that they understood
that the company could no longer keep them. “We know they want to down
size, but why do it through the back door?” Mr. Ronald lamented.

Brandishing a copy
of what appeared to be a copy of another offer of employment for the
same job they were being paid over a million naira in gross annual
income now pegged at a paltry three hundred and sixty-thousand
naira(N360,000) albeit for the new employees as trainee operators.

‘We don’t talk to journalists’

ABTI Press Group of
Companies, established by the former vice president, has been battling
to come out from troubling financial waters it has been sailing in
since last year when it entered negotiations with some of its staff to
slash their remuneration.

Johnson Agwu, the
managing director, however refused to speak to the press on the issue.
However, a management staff, speaking anonymously on the matter in
Yola, said “everything was going by the dictate of the rule of law.”

But it was gathered
that the management has agreed to settle the entitlement of the sacked
workers at the instance of the commissioner of police.

Mr. Akintunde said
“the management of the company offered to give us a cheque for 60 per
cent payment of our salary,” adding that “the company promised to pay
the balance of their outstanding 40 per cent accruing since July, 2009
as entitlement sometime in July 2010.”

He concluded that they accepted the offer only to be given dude cheque for payment from a dormant account of the company.