Armed policemen storm Daily Independent

Armed policemen yesterday stormed the Headquarters of the Daily Independent Newspaper, locking out the workers.

The workers were said to have been locked out on the orders of the company’s management following their refusal to work and subsequent protest on Tuesday.

The presence of the armed policemen was to ensure that the journalists didn’t force their way into the company or cause another commotion as witnessed on Tuesday.

According to some of the workers, the protest and refusal to work, was over their unpaid 22 months salaries.

One of the staff, Mr. Kayode Ogunlade said: “Before we got to the company this morning, the MD and some of the management had instructed the policemen and the security officers of this organisation not to allow any of the workers in. We were later invited by our National Union of Journalists (NUJ) chapel to discuss the issue. The management told our representative that it would get back to him through email. We’ve not received any email yet. We’re still waiting.”

The Chairman of the National Union of Printing, Publishing and Paper Product Workers (NUPPPROW) of Independent Newspaper, Mr. Nwachukwu Emmanuel said the management withheld their salaries out of greed.

He added: “The Company now owes us 22 months outstanding salaries. Nobody is bothered on how we survive. The management still goes as far as deducting from our salaries which it claims to be for tax payment. A payment that had never been remitted! This is the only company that pays salaries without pay slips. We have co-operative board, which was organised by some of the staff. Contributions are made according to the financial capacity of a person and this company management collected the money from the cooperative manager! As at this moment, those involved in this committee don’t have access to their money! Many people have lost their lives due to this situation. The management is not bothered! We don’t even have pensions to rely on when we retire. We have issued letters to the management to have a meeting with us, but all efforts had been fruitless!”

Chairman of NUJ, Independent Newspaper chapel, Mr. Ajibola Abayomi said the union was committed to the problem and ready to go any length if the issue was not resolved.