Frustration! Ex Anambra Guber Candidate Shuts Down Company, Evicts Staff from Quarters After Failing Election 4th Time

What could be best described as a frustration may have befallen a regular gubernatorial candidate in Anambra State and publisher of Orient Daily Newspaper, Mr. Godwin Ezeemo, as he served eviction notice to staff of the company residents at its Charity Estate staff quarters, behind Government House, Awka, Anambra State capital.

Recall that the highly-indebted guber candidate, Ezeemo has contested governorship election four times in Anambra State, but won none.

Ezeemo, who is the Chairman and CEO of the (now-moribund) Orient Magazine, Newspaper & Communication Limited (publishers of Orient Daily Newspaper), Orient Energy and Omega FM, was said to have served the eviction notice to his staff through his lawyer, Uju Ikena Esq. of Pax-Christi Chambers, Onitsha.

It was gathered that the notice, dated May 31, 2023, was pasted on the walls at the staff quarters on June 20, 2023, amidst mounting of unpaid salaries arrears and other entitlements he owed to them.

The development, according to inside sources, took place barely three weeks after the lawyer called a meeting of residents of the estate and declared herself the new solicitor of Ezeemo and issued a new directive to distraught staff and non-staff at the quarters to come with their rent receipts and evidence of payment of electricity bills at the next meeting.

“The lawyer made it known to us that Oga was no longer interested in hearing that we are Orient Staff and that he wants only those who will pay the new rent to remain and those that could not to pack out, even as he insists that he was not owing anybody,” the source who craved anonymity disclosed.

“We were still waiting for the lawyer to come for the rescheduled meeting so we can iron out the issue when we saw quit notice pasted everywhere at the quarters with ten days to expiration of the notice,” the source added.

It was learned that trouble started in early 2021 when frustrating salary crisis and flagrant breach of employment contract by the management forced some key staff of the company including the Editor, the News Editor to resign their appointments. Despite spirited attempts to replace the departed staff, revive morale of workforce and operations, Orient Daily fortune didn’t improve as cash crunch deepened its salary crisis.

“It will interest you to know that despite the grueling situation at the company, Mr. Ezeemo, a self-acclaimed industrialist, has been spending heavily on the political fronts, as a consistent contestant for the Anambra governorship. At the last count, he had contested four times with different parties from 2010 till 2021 at huge cost without success. And he now wants his employees to pay the price for his political losses,” another ex-staff of the company said.

This reporter gathered that shortly after his last failed gubernatorial outing, Ezeemo, in a memo he personally signed, announced temporary closure of the Orient Daily newspaper in what he called move to “restrategize” operations of the company. According to the memo dated 10th December 2021, the company would scale down its operations in order to “minimize cost and attract a sizable revenue for a restart”.

Ezeemo, through the memo, told employees of Orient Daily to stay out temporarily until they were invited for resumption of duties, or will be paid their salary arrears since the accounting department has information of the account details of all the available and non-available staff for settlement.

It was also learnt that a year earlier, Orient Daily staff, some already owned up to 12 months’ arrears were forced to spend the December 2020 with paltry N10,000 ‘Christmas palliative’, a development that forced some of them to the exit.

a new tenancy agreement and rent hike, feigned ignorance of the debt profile of his client and had warned the staff that she was not concerned about any arrears or their past business with the politician.

Further recounting their experiences, another affected staff told this reporter that the politician had been looking for a way to exonerate himself of the plights of the workers whose future have been badly damaged.

“He wants to sweep the accumulated debt under the carpet, hence the order to the lawyer to device any possible means of getting rid of the remaining staff in the company’s quarters,” the staff disclosed.

Another staff added thus: “Our careers have been torn apart by the management style of Ezeemo. Even while the company was functioning, we could barely eat because of the inconsistencies in the salaries. We resorted to waiting for the company to revive to pay us up, only for him to issue us quit notice without giving us any dime.”

This reporter authoritatively gathered that despite service of the court processes on the employees, Ezeemo’s lawyer is still threatening to employ thugs and other unlawful means to forcefully eject the employees.

workers by rendering them homeless amid backlog of unpaid salaries and entitlements.

The above speculations may not be far from the reason why Mr. Ezeemo was also adjudged to be one of the struggling millionaires in Anambra State who would always donate to churches and sponsor beauty pageantry, while his workers wallow in poverty over unpaid salaries and entitlements.

As the shadow of uncertainty and financial bondage looms large over Ezeemo’s dedicated workers, it is paradoxical to note that his Orient Daily Newspaper’s slogan is “Setting the Bonds Free.“