Former staff members of Owena Press Limited, publishers of The Hope newspaper, wholly owned by the Ondo State Government, have appealed to the state government to pay the arrears of gratuity due to them.
Particularly, they appealed to Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, to, as a caring father and in the spirit of the season, consider the peculiar service condition in the company, whose former staff do not receive monthly pension, unlike their counterparts in the mainstream civil service and the pitiable plight of many of the ex-staffers.
They made the appeal on Wednesday, December 29, 2021 through the immediate former Editor of The Hope, Mr. Banji Ayoola, who said that the non-payment of the gratuity has worsened the health and socioeconomic challenges of his former colleagues and turned many of them into beggars in their post-service years.
The former Editor cited the case of a former Head Photographer of the newspaper, Mr. Remi Aye, who had been bed-ridden since 2015 while in active service, a situation which worsened since his retirement in 2018.
Aye, who covered the State House for The Hope in his active years, had been battling what doctors called partial stroke since 2015 on his return from Kabba, Kogi State, as a member of the media crew in the convoy of the immediate past Governor Olusegun Mimiko, who had gone to boost the second term reelection campaign of his then Peoples Democratic Party colleague, the then Governor Idris Wada.
“By the time I got to Akure, I started feeling weak. I went straight to a pharmacy on Oda Road, opposite School of Health Technology. They conducted a test on me and said that my blood pressure had risen. They sold drugs costing N2, 500 for me. On getting home, I took those drugs. At about 12 midnight, I could not lift my hands and legs; and my tongue had twisted. That was all,” Aye recalled.
He was taken to the State Specialist Hospital in Akure, from where he was referred to the Trauma Centre, Ondo. Government paid the bills. That was in 2015. He has been bed-ridden ever since.
Ayoola said that the ex-staffers wrote a passionate letter of appeal, which he signed, to the Governor in 2019 on the matter, but that nothing positive has come out of it despite the Governor’s kind and prompt acknowledgement of the letter.
In his words: “It is sad and saddening that there is nothing merry in the ongoing festive season for our members, many of who are wallowing in penury and battling age-related illnesses. It is sad that many of those who faithfully and meritoriously served the Government and People of Ondo State in their productive years are now left to the vagaries of life in the evening of their lives.
“I can tell you that six of our members including a former Head of the Features Desk, two photographers, a gate man and two drivers, have died mainly of sicknesses that could be easily treated if money had been available, while some are bed-ridden and unable to help themselves. Many have resorted to selling off their landed and other properties in order to keep body and soul together, while others who have little or nothing to fall back on, have been reduced to the indignity of begging.”
Recalling that the forum of ex-staffers had in 2019 written to the Governor on the matter, the former Editor said: “The Governor did acknowledge the letter and kindly promptly directed that action be taken on it. But till now, we only hear rumours of the letter moving from one office to another and that it had finally been sent to the office of the Head of Service for onward transmission to Mr. Governor. Our hope was raised when the Governor promised to offset gratuities and pensions from the recent bail out, but it now seems that our hope was misplaced.
“We are, once again, appealing to the government to help us and bail us out of penury and wasting away alive. Our case is especially pathetic as ex-staffers of the organization are not entitled to pensions; all we get is the gratuity which has now gone unpaid for many years.”
The last time Government paid ex-staffers of the publishing firm their due gratuity was between 2010 and 2012. Notably, six of the company’s 34 former staff who retired or left on their own since 2012, have died without receiving their gratuity.
Although categorised as civil servants, Owena Press Limited staff are not pensionable, while the company has no standard or statutory format for gratuity payment to its former staff; whereas their mainstream civil service counterparts are paid their gratuities as they exit the service to engage in other business ventures, apart from receiving monthly pensions to keep life going.
