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From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
The laid-off staff of the comatose New Nigerian Newspapers (NNN) headquartered in Kaduna, yesterday, staged a peaceful protest over non-payment of their entitlements by the northern governors who own the media outfit.
According to the protesters, those in charge have successfully disposed off some of the landed assets of NNN valued at N2.7 billion which is supposed to have been used to clear their entitlements over the years.
The physically and emotionally angry protesters carried placards with varying inscriptions like: “We are not slaves to have served for years without pay, property disposed committee has a skeleton in its cupboard, all assets sold and monies vanished, our members are dying and our children cannot feed.”
Amos Mathew and Nicholas Dekera, chairman and secretary, respectively told newsmen it had got to a point where the world and the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, and other stakeholders know what was happening to one of the legacies the late Northern Premier, Ahmadu Ballo (Sardauna), left behind.
“Our plight began after the Federal Government handed over the New Nigerian Newspapers to northern governors with the backlog of pension and salary arrears.
“However, northern governors, headed by Kashim Shettima, then chairman who is now the vice president, at a Northern Governors’ Forum on Friday, April 29, 2016 at General Hassan Usman Katsina House, Kawo, Kaduna approved Public Private Partnership (PPP) and split the company into three which included newspaper production, printing, and publishing in commercial quantities and commercial properties.
“Shettima also approved total liquidation of the company and all its landed properties across the country to settle its liabilities once and for all.
“Pursuant to the aforementioned, a committee was set up with its membership drawn from Northern Capital Properties Limited, New Nigerian Newspaper management, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, and Office of the Secretary to the Kaduna State Government (SSG) which commenced the sale of NNN property immediately.
“To fasttrack the process for payment of workers’ benefits, the former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, facilitated the payment and liquidation of all outstanding pensions and gratuities of all Federal Government workers under New Nigeria Newspapers by Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate in December 2021. One would have expected the burden would become less but a litany of agony ensued.
“Surprisingly, NNN management and the committee that turned deaf ears to northern governors’ directives to pay workers went ahead to expressly spend about N200 million on contractors and other unknown expenditures out of the money realised without paying a penny to workers,” they alleged in a jointly signed statement.
The claimed that 102 of their members have died while waiting for their benefits, some bedridden, some chased out of their rented apartments while a good number of cannot feed properly.
Dekera recalled that in October 2022, the former SSG to Kaduna State, Balarabe Lawal, now Minister for Environment approved three-month in-lieu of notice payment for all in-house staff who were laid off at that time. “This again was abandoned, and no single penny was paid. As of today more than 90 per cent of the properties have been sold and over N2.7 billion realised (with some of these properties fully acquired and renovation works commenced.
“A very good example is the popular 10-storey Nagwamatse House in the heart of Kaduna city), the proceeds of which were allegedly deposited into the same bank account claimed to have been garnished,” he said.
The protesters called on the Northern Governors’ Forum to compel the management of New Nigeria Newspapers, headed by Yusuf Kontagora, to immediately pay all NNN workers all entitlements without any further delays just as they gave the NNN management and the committee a 14-day ultimatum to pay up or face more protests from workers.
