ILORIN – Workers of Kwara State Printing and Publishing Corporation (publishers of The Herald Newspapers) yesterday stood their ground as the former General Manager of the government agency, Mr. Yomi Adeboye, attempted to flout Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq’s directive to heads of government agencies in the state to hand over.
This medium gathered that Mr. Adeboye who was earlier appointed as the Editor of the Corporation lobbied for and got the post of the General Manager as soon as the former GM, Mr. Adebayo Abdulrazaq was relieved of his duties by the Governor.
However, on Tuesday when the Governor directed all heads of agencies to hand over, Mr. Adeboye in a desperate bid to remain in office tried to play a fast one by coming for the production as the Editor of the Paper but met a brick wall as members of staff were already producing the paper.
Irked by his reluctance to hand over power to the next in line, members of staff took it upon themselves not only to produce the Friday paper but also ensure that work was not interrupted in the Corporation.
While calling for the immediate official handover by the former General Manager to the right officer within the organization as directed by the state government, members of staff lamented the former GM’s poor management of the office during his time as the General Manager.
Some of the aggrieved workers who spoke on conditions of anonymity said they were irked by Mr. Adeboye’s high handedness and how he runs down members of staff.
“How will a General Manager be saying that all members of his staff are incompetent and he is the only one working in the Corporation, does it even make any sense? The Governor said he should hand over why is he trying to defy our Governor? We won’t allow that, he will not sign today’s production. We have competent hands to do it and in line with the Governor’s directive he should just leave us alone and stop causing divisions among us,” one of the aggrieved members of staff told this medium.
Another member of staff also recalled how the General Manager endangers the life of members of staff after each production saying, “we always find it difficult to go back to our various homes after production due to unavailability of transportation and as the head of the corporation he does not care.”
Members of staff also alleged that Mr. Adeboye’s refusal to hand over to the highest officer in the Corporation is hinged on the support he allegedly gets from some cabals believed to be close to the executive governor.
“When he was appointed as the GM he was supposed to appoint an acting editor and others so he can focus on the day to day running of the Corporation but he didn’t, rather he went to our parent ministry and said there is nobody that is competent, today we want the whole world to know that we have competent people who can do the work and who will have the cooperation of the workers too,” one of the staff said.
Efforts to get Mr. Adeboye’s side of the story proved abortive as his only known number was not connecting when called. However, it is clear that the Governor needs to quickly address the situation as events continue to unfold in the government owned media house as what is obtained in The Herald presently is peace of the graveyard
It would be recalled that the Kwara State Government, earlier this week, had dismissed the board and management of its three media houses, including The Herald Newspaper, Radio Kwara and Kwara Television, and directed that their General Managers hand over to the most senior officers in the organizations.
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