IBORI LINKED -PAPER ROARS BACK TO LIFE
BY ABDULMUMINI ADEKU
………………………………………….NEW APPOINTMENTS AT INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS,
EGBUNIKE TAKES OVER THE NEWSROOM
…………………………………………HOW OVER N500MILLION DEBT CRIPPLED FIRM
…………………………………………HOW WORKERS CHANTED TED IWERE MUST GO
…………………………………………FIRM HAS AT LEAST OVER 200 WORKERS
………………………………………..WORKERS BELIEVED TO BE WAITING NOW FOR 23
MONTHS SALARIES
…………………………………………TAX FRAUD ALLEGEDLY SPOTTED IN FIRM’S UNREPORTED
AUDITED STATEMENT
………………………………………….INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS WAS PUBLISHING 1,000
COPIES BEFORE HALTING PRODUCTION ON THE 6TH OF OCTOBER,2015 BEFORE
HALTING PRODUCTION FROM THE GLORY OF 20,000 COPIES
…………………………………………SECOND GENERATOR CRIPPLES NEWLY INSTALLED
N400MILLION PRINTING PRESS IN ABUJA AS 98 PERCENT OF ABUJA WORKERS DISAPPEAR
INTO THIN AIR
……………………………………….GRAVE YARD PEACE INSIDE COMPANY PREMISES IN
LAGOS AS OPERATIONS RESUME ON THE 22ND OF FEBRUARY,2016
The Independent Newspapers Limited ,fondly linked to jailed
politician and former Governor of Delta State,Chief James Onanefe Ibori has
resumed full operations.
The company resumed operations on the 22nd of February,2016
without the sacking of the firm’s Executive Editor,Mr Ted Iwere like the
workers demanded.
As at press time,feelers suggests it is still a case of
grave yard peace as salaries of workers which is the main issue in contention
has still not being paid.
In an exclusive interview with the News Office Desk of
Paedia Express Multimedia in Lagos, Nigeria in his office recently,Mr Olisa
Egbunike said that he was happy to tell the world that the company has finished
its final phase in branding and now they were proudly back on the vendor
stands.
He revealed that what we had as Daily Independent was gone
into the thin air and what was now in vogue was the Independent Newspaper brand
as they were eager to give Nigerians a fresh and new outlook.
His words:”we publish in Lagos what is driven by business,
Abuja is driven by politics,Asaba is driven by community,business and politics
as well”
“if you look at our premium pages you will see research
based stories in pages 1,3,5,7, and the
back pages of the brand”
Egbunike while reminiscing on his career recalled that he
started from the prints even though he
majored in broadcasting before working for a wire agency for several years.
According to him,he has been involved in training media
professionals across the divide and nothing seems to have changed aside from
the fact that he moved from his old offices at News Agency of Nigeria [N.A.N.]
in Iganmu area of Lagos to Ogba in the
same city.
He assured that the newspaper will become more analytical
in its reportage and noted that
the brand has a ready- made market that was sure to receive as it was not
really meant for the mass market.
In a related issue,it would be recalled that a Debt crisis of at least N500million is believed to be weighing down the operations of
the Independent Newspapers in Nigeria or so even as at press time .
In an exclusive forensic check by the news office desk of
Paedia Express Multimedia ,it was learnt that the company believed to be
owned by now jailed politician, Chief
James Onanefe Ibori has at least 200 staff on its pay roll .
Moles in the company told this reporter that the highest paid
staff was been paid a sum of N37,000 monthly
while its recently recruited circulation consultant ,Mr Abiola Ayankunbi
was earning a sum of N50,000 after initially been paid a six digit salary pegged at N150,000
monthly.
In an exclusive interview granted Paedia Express Multimedia
,the Chairman of the firms National Union of Printing,Publishing and Paper
Product Workers,Comrade Nwachukwu Emmanuel said that they will not go back to
work if the current helmsman ,Mr Ted Iwere did not leave.
He painted a gory picture of Mr Iwere ‘s management style
among which includes his decision not to respect workers welfare rights aside from engaging in projects that did not
add up as far as they were concerned.
His words:”when we asked him to give us hope,he said there
is no hope and the print run figure is terribly embarrassing”
He accused Mr Iwere of high handedness saying that due to
their agitation towards the improvement of workers welfare the latter brought
members of the Nigerian Police Force to lock up the company while trying to
browbeat them into submission.
Mr Ajibola Abayomi,Chairman ,Nigerian Union of Journalists
,Independent Newspapers Group in Nigeria
said that they will continue to resist Iwere until he was flushed out of power.
It was gathered by this reporter that workers in the
newspaper company had been paying tax officially but that same was never
remitted to the appropriate quarters hence leading to insinuations of a massive
tax fraud in the firm in the last fifteen years.
It was learnt through moles in the firm that Mr Ted
Iwere had a habit of turning up for duty
every day at around 5:00P.M.in the
evening but that surprisingly on the day
he came to lock up the firm last year he
had showed up with gun wielding policemen very early in the morning.
This reporter was informed that Mr Iwere ‘s latest crisis
with workers of the firm started when
staff of the company were told that a certain portion of the compound of
the corporate Head office of the company was to be demolished for a car park
while the issue of workers welfare remained a non-issue.
The Independent Newspapers recently launched a world class
newsroom considered by many as probably the first of its kind as far as the newspaper business is concerned
in Africa .
Advertising and sales of the print and even online copies of
the brand which has been voted twice as the Newspaper of the Year in Nigeria is
now at an all time high
MR OLISA EGBUNIKE,FIRST FROM LEFT STRESSES A POINT WHEN SOME FRIENDS VISITED HIM RECENTLY AT THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS IN LAGOS,NIGERIA
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