Atiku’s Gotel Communications: Why We Sacked Employees

By lagoslately | May 2, 2020

Gotel Communications Limited, the Yola-based media company which issued sack letters to scores of its staff on workers Day, May 1, has stated reason for it.

The company, a firm of television and radio station owned by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, said the sack of staff was a result of a restructuring exercise, a process which started last year.

The company had handed sack letters to at least 46 of its staff on Friday when workers worldwide were marking Workers Day.

The affected staff had faulted the number of sacked workers: while some said they were over 50, others said although the initial list contained 56 staff, it was thinned down to 46.

A statement giving reason for the sack was silent on the number of those affected. The statement, signed by the General Manager of the company, Mohammed El-Yakub, and entitled, ‘Rationalisation of staff in Gotel, outcome of long standing company restructuring,’ said Atiku Abubakar had no personal hand in the Friday layoff of workers.

The statement said, “The rationalisation of staff at Gotel Communications Limited, a company under the umbrella of Priam Group, is a culmination of the restructuring process in the companies under our Group.

The founder of companies under the Priam had announced that many of his business concerns will be aggregated under the Priam Group. Priam Group had embarked on a restructuring exercise which led to a merger of many companies under its umbrella.

“Other components of the restructuring includes rationalization of workforce and thus some members of staff of the group would be laid off, with their full disengagement benefits paid to them.”

It stressed that the current decision to “right size” the workforce in Gotel Communication Limited is the climax of the on-going restructuring exercise which was initiated last year.
It said it was out of context “to ascribe any mundane presupposition for being responsible for the decision to lay off some of the workforce in Gotel Communication Limited,” and explained that following the unveiling of Priam Group last year, Atiku Abubakar ceased to be involved in the running of the affairs of his companies.