…Former employees go to court in droves
These certainly are not the best of times for Mr. Steve Omanufeme, the newly appointed managing director of Independent Newspapers.
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While the new MD is looking for ways to offset the mountain of debts and salary arrears of workers left behind for him by his predecessors, former staff members of the company who either resigned, were asked to resign or had their appointments terminated, are on his neck asking for their severance pay and over 18 months of unpaid salary.
STEVE OMANUFEME
One of the former MDs, , is also hot on (Omanufeme’s) heels saying that the company is indebted to him to the tune of N9m. Sources said that he engaged the lawyers that provides legal services to the company each time any of the former staff go to court to ask for their unpaid entitlement.
And that each time the lawyers go to court, they present a bill of N500, 000 to INL, irrespective of how much the ex-staff is asking for.
“That is the devil and the deep blue sea Omanufeme has found himself. The annoying thing is that some of the staff entitlement is not more than N3m, some are less than a million, our source continued. “The man is just profiting from the company and the people he sacked. He has no conscious; though, he once told us that he has no conscience when a former editor of the paper advised him to pay workers.”
Even another of the MD, is said to have incurred a debt of N98m for the company; the debt is mainly from suppliers of consumables;these happened within the period of three years he managed the company.
Now most of the ex-staff are threatening to or have gone to court to demand for their entitlement before their disengagement from the company becomes statue barred and to avoid been told by the court that they slept on their rights.
Our sources also said that a former political editor of the paper who willingly resigned to take up the job of a media aide to a minister under Goodluck Jonathan, and who has equally taken INL to court, was approached by the lawyers from the former MD, on behalf of INL, for an out of court settlement that INL is ready to pay him N100, 000 monthly to liquidate his N3m entitlement.
But the man, we gathered refused the off insisting on full payment at once or they proceed to court.
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