The staff and pensioners of New Nigerian Newspapers have given the Northern Governors’ Forum a 14-day ultimatum to pay their N2.1 billion entitlements.
Reading the text of the press conference jointly signed by the chairman and secretary of the NNN Press Committee, Elder Amos Matthew and Comrade Nicholas Dekera, respectively, they said over 90 percent of the property has been sold and over N2.7 billion has been realized.
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It was recalled that in 2023, after PTAD verified and began payment of monthly pensions, the duo of Barrister Iweka and Idi Sule returned to court over an initial out-of-court settlement item: check-up dues.
The duo recalled that the Federal High Court on May 2022 garnished the GT Bank account number 0605091406 with the account name “New Capital Properties Ltd ” where all the monies realised from the sales of the property were lodged.
“The garnishee was vacated, but again, the management and the committee failed to pay workers’ benefits even with express orders from the former Kaduna SSG to present documents for onward approval and payments.
“On July 14, 2022, a second garnishee was served on the same account; however, the claimant counsel before the honorable judge confirmed that there was only N20 million in the garnished account, whereas the total lodgment at that time was over N700 million. Questions on what happened to the balance, who withdrew the money, and for what purpose the money was withdrawn were never answered by the committee or the NNN management, ” it stated.
“The northern governors, headed by the then chairman, who is now Nigeria’s Vice President, Kashim Shettima, at a Northern Governors Forum on Friday, April 5, 2016, at General Hassan Usman Katsina House, Kawo, Kaduna, approved that public-private partnership and splitting the company into three, which include newspaper production, printing and publishing in commercial quantities and commercial properties, and total liquidation of the company and all its landed property across the country to settle its liabilities once and for all.”
The congress called on Shettima, the Northern Governors Forum, and the management of NNN to pay the workers all their entitlements without further delay, threatening to occupy all sold property after the 14-day ultimatum.