More than 145 employees of
Television Continental Broadcasting Service, which operates TVC News, TVC
Nigeria, and TVC Entertainment has been sacked.
The media conglomerate’s owner is Bola Tinubu, a Nigerian
politician who was a Governor of Lagos State as well as a founder and national
leader of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC).
According to news agency, Saharareporters, said that there was heavy security presence at the firm
as the sacking was carried out. They added that some of the fired employees
were pioneers at the broadcast outfit.
A source close to Mr. Tinubu told our correspondent that the
decision to carry out the mass firing of staff was approved by the political
chieftain “because he is tired of throwing money into the TV station without
reaping any profit.” The source added that the former governor ordered the
management of the media firm to come up with measures to drastically reduce
overhead costs, especially workers’ salaries that reportedly ran into 200
million naira each month.
SaharaReporters learned that TVC had 450 employees, including
those employed at “TVC Africa,” the international arm of TVC that has now been
shut down completely. A former staff of the TV network told SaharaReporters
that the station received ample advert funds from 57 local government areas in
the state. Two other TVC management staffers told SaharaReporters that while
Mr. Tinubu may be collecting funds from local government areas in the name of
TV programming, the network received only a fraction of the funds. They
disclosed that the funds were usually routed through one Shola Lawal to buy
airtime on behalf of the local governments.
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