AIT fires all workers in Benin station

Naij.com

– Latest decision may be a reaction to the recent protest by the workers

– Feelers say their chairman’s travailsin the hands of EFCC may have affected them as well

Reports credited to The Nation have it that the African Independent Television (AIT) has fired all its workers in Benin City with immediate effect.

The affected workers were said to have been owed upward of two years before the company’s management took the decision to terminate their contract on Tuesday, June 14.The letter conveying the management’s decision was signed by Victor Okasoga, the company’s senior manager in charge of HR.According to the letter, those affectedare expected to“handover all company properties in your possession especially your identity cards to the Head of Center.“Failure to surrender company properties in your possession may delay the processing of your entitlements.”This sudden decision by the company may have been as a result of the recent protest carried out by the affected workers including reporters, cameramen, presenters and producers.Recall that Chief Alegho Raymond Dokpesi, the chairman of DAAR Communications Plc, owners of AIT,was on Wednesday, December 9, 2015, arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) before a Federal High Court in Abuja.Dokpesi, who was on trial for a six-count charge of money laundering and other fraud related charges, was taken to Kuje prison on Monday, December 14.According to the charge, Dokpesi allegedly received about N2.1 billion from the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) for PDP’s ‎presidential media campaign.‎Justice Gabriel Kolawole had granted the media mogul bail. The conditions for bail are N200 million each (N400m) by two sureties and the judge ordered that he should be remanded in Kuje prisons pending thefulfillment of his bail conditions.Although feelers from the independent tv station informed that the salaries were being owed before the trial of their boss commenced, it is not impossible that his recent trials are part of the current crisis rocking the media firm.