Former Anambra Governorship Candidate under the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) and the publisher of Orient Daily newspaper, Mr. Godwin Chukwunenye Ezeemo has served eviction notice to staff of the company residents at its Charity Estate staff quarters behind the government house, Awka, the state capital.
Ezeemo is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Orient Magazine, Newspaper & Communication Limited (OMNCL), publishers of Orient Daily, Orient Energy and Omega FM.
The politician served the notice to his staff through his lawyer, Uju Ikena Esq. of Pax-Christi Chambers, Onitsha.
ANN gathered that the notice dated May 31, 2023 was pasted on the walls at the staff quarters on June 20, 2023, amidst mounting arrears of unpaid salaries and other entitlements as well as speculation that the company had been shutdown permanently by Mr Ezeemo.
The development, according to inside sources, took place barely three weeks after the lawyer called a meeting of residents of the estate and declared herself the new solicitor of Ezeemo and issued a new directive to distraught staff and non-staff at the quarters to come with their rent receipts and evidence of payment of electricity bills at the next meeting.
“The lawyer made it known to us that Oga was no longer interested in hearing that we are Orient Staff and that he wants only those who will pay the new rent to remain and those that could not to pack out, even as he insists that he was not owing anybody”, the source who craved anonymity disclosed.
“We were still waiting for the lawyer to come for the rescheduled meeting so we can iron out the issue when we saw quit notice pasted everywhere at the quarters with ten days to expiration of the notice”, the source added.
It was learned that trouble started in early 2021 when frustrating salary crisis and fragrant breach of employment contract by the management forced some key staff of the company including the Editor, the News Editor to resign their appointments. Despite spirited attempts to replace the departed staff, revive morale of workforce and operations, Orient Daily fortune didn’t improve as cash crunch deepened its salary crisis.
“It will interest you to know that despite the grueling situation at the company, Mr. Ezeemo, a self-acclaimed industrialist, has been spending heavily on the political fronts, as consistent contestant for the Anambra governorship. As at last count, he had contested four times with different parties from 2010 till 2021 at huge cost without success. And he now wants his employees to pay the price for his political losses”, another ex-staff of the company said.
ANN gathered that shortly after his last failed governorship crashed, Ezeemo in a memo he personally signed announced temporary closure of the Orient Daily newspaper in what he called move to “restrategize” operations of the company. According to the memo dated 10th December 2021, the company would scale down its operations in order to “minimize cost and attract a sizable revenue for a restart” .
Ezeemo, through the memo, told employees of Orient Daily to stay out temporarily until they are invited for resumption of duties, or else will be paid their salary arrears since the accounting department has information of the account details of all the available and non-available staff for settlement.
ANN learned that a year earlier, Orient Daily staff, some already owned up to 12 months’ arrears were forced to spend the December 2020 with paltry N10,000 ‘Christmas palliative’, a development that forced some of them to the exit.
ANN also gathered that the some staff resident at the estate expressed shock that Ezeemo decided to eject them from the staff quarters when he had not informed them of formal closure of the company or settle salary arrears and other entitlements owed them.
