No fewer than six staff sacked by the management of Friendies Hotel and Suites, Abraka, in Delta State, have asked the director of the hotel, Chief Nnamdi Okeke to pay their December salaries and half month in January, warning that failure to pay them would result to protest.
It was learnt that, the hotel, located along Eku/Warri express road, opposite Double Delight Eatery was opened on October 30, 2016. Those affected are cleaners and bartenders whose monthly salaries was billed for N15,000 each.
They also alleged that, while they worked there as staff, the Director was in the habit of assaulting them during work period even din the presence of customers.
The workers, who spoke in one voice with our reporter, noted that their former boss was usually friendly with staff at the earlier part of the month, but as soon as the month came to an end, his attitude towards staff changes automatically as he becomes aggressive.
“He was always friendly with us (staff) from the beginning of the month, but once the month comes to an end, his attitude automatically changes. Infact, he becomes very aggressive at the slightest opportunity. We believe that, it is because he is trying to avoid paying us our salaries.
“The hotel was opened on October 30, 2016, and since then we have been working, but our salaries are not coming as and when dew. He sacked us recently but never paid us our outstanding salaries. He has replaced us with new workers from Warri. Even in December, despite that our salaries was not paid to us, he never gave us end of year bonus and allowance.” He explained.
The former workers cried out in pain, said argued that each time they approached him for their December salaries, he (Nnamdi) would ask the security men on duty to escort them out of the hotel, while giving them strict warning not to allow entry anytime we visited, nothing that even the Bible says, “a laborer deserves his wages.”
They, therefore, called on the relevant human rights organizations to come to their aid and prevail on the director, Chief Nnamdi Okeke to pay their salaries.
In a swift reaction, the Director of the Hotel, Chief Nnamdi Okeke, dismissed the workers’ threats as mere, saying that they do not deserve any salary since their performances fell short of the management rules and regulations. He said “I am not under obligations to pay any worker who did not work to expectation especially in the rules and regulations of the management.”
Meanwhile, a former Commissioner on the board of Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC), Chief (Dr) Henry Ofa has expressed deep concerns over the precarious state of insecurity in Nigeria.
Ofa, who represented Ethiope West, Sapele and Okpe Local Government Areas on the DESOPADEC board, said the alarming level of insecurity in the country and the Federal Government’s spirited efforts at diversifying the country’s economy through the agrarian sector are two paradoxical issues that must not be allowed to coexist.
Speaking with our reporter on Saturday, the former Commissioner observed that the Federal Government is laying much emphasis on agriculture as the leeway out of the festering economic morass, without directing adequate attention towards the herdsmen menace that “is chasing famers from the bush”.
Nigerians are being advised to return to agriculture, but how can their efforts be worthwhile when their security is not guaranteed in the farms?
“Herdsmen activities have left many uncertainties in different farming communities; people are being chased away from their farms, their economic crops are destroyed and some are even murdered in the process.
“If this remains the order of the day, then the hope of diversifying the country’s economy through agriculture may be under serious threats”, he said.
Ofa explained that the agricultural enhancement policies of the Federal Government are commendable, but stressed that “it must urgently devise a means of controlling cattle movements in farmlands”.
On the imperative of a served grazing area for cattle, he said cattle rearing are a “private business” and should be treated as one, suggesting that interested parties should acquired portions of land in which they could go about their lawful businesses without undermining those of others.
Source: Leadership
