About 200 staff members of the Anambra State government-owned newspaper publishing company, National Light Newspaper are to lose their jobs as Governor Chukwuma Soludo has decided to shut down the company.
Soludo was said to have informed members of the State Executive Council (SEC) during their last meeting at the Government House, Awka, that the newspaper company was not adding any value to the government and the economy of the state, and, therefore, it has to be scrapped. The workers included journalists, accountants, printers, security staff members, cleaners, etc.
Reacting to the condemnation of the governor’s plan to close down the newspaper company and sack the workers, the chairman of the state chapter of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Comrade Emeka Odogwu Emeka and the commissioner for information, Chief Paul Nwosu, said the plan to shut down the newspaper company and sack the workers had not been carried out.
He said, “The issue of National Light is still being considered by the Anambra State Executive Council (ANSEC), and, as soon as there is a firm decision, the news will be formally made public but not through a grapevine or a mole.”
Odogwu had pleaded with the governor not to close down the newspaper company stating that the action would render the workers, including journalists and others unemployed and consequently bring economic hardship on hundreds of their dependents.
The NUJ boss suggested to Soludo to in the alternative redeploy the workers of the newspaper company to the state ministries where their services would be needed.
LEADERSHIP learnt that the state Newspaper company has its staff members, especially journalists working as correspondents/reporters in many other states across the country, particularly in South East zone, and, Abuja, the nation’s capital.
It was learnt that already the National Light Newspaper reporter attached to the governor’s press crew had been dropped from the press crew.
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