Sacked staff of Abuja Film Village have cried out to the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Minister, Nyesom Wike, to come to their aid and upturn their unlawful termination by the then managing director of the organization, Mrs. Francisca Ibezim.
Spokesman of the aggrieved sacked staff, Habila Kayit, in a statement, in Abuja, yesterday, said the Abuja Film Village International had 27 staff, comprising both senior and junior cadres, but who have now been sacked.
He said: “The Film Village has been in existence since 2007, but unable to achieve its set objectives as expected.
”While we express worries on the inability of the entity to run with its vision, the staff are always active with laudable initiatives but get turned down by the then management for paucity of funds and bottlenecks from the FCT administration.
“However, reports and engagements with some of the management staff of the FCTA revealed failure of the then management of the film village to build the company on the path of sustainability and best practices. In view of the above, we dissociate ourselves from their decisions as our consent was not sought before taking those decisions.
“The plight of the sacked film village staff is better imagined than experienced especially at the time when those receiving their salaries as at when due are struggling to stay afloat.
”We and our dependents are going through untold hardship and life has increasingly become unbearable for us as we can no longer provide the basic necessities of life for our households.
”Feeding is a problem and some of our children are out of school for non-payment of fees while some of our colleagues have received eviction notices from their landlords.
“When the then Minister, Muhammadu Musa Bello came on-board in 2015, he made frantic efforts to reposition FCTA business holdings including Abuja Film Village for profitability and better service delivery. In the case of Abuja film village, he constituted a committee to review the activities of the Abuja Film Village and make recommendations to the administration.
”However, a five man committee comprising of Director Human Resources Management, Director Office of the Permanent Secretary, Director Treasury, the Solicitor General and Deputy Director SERVICOM to investigate the cause of the complaints of non-payment of the salaries of staff of the Abuja Film Village International for thirty months (January 2018-June 2020) and to examine factors affecting the operational efficiency and management of the Agency.