NDBDA Crisis: Staff Present Evidence Of Management’s Victimisation

Following the recent labour crisis rocking the Niger Delta Basin Development Authority (NDBDA), Port Harcourt, about 70 staff of the company have presented evidence in proof of their earlier claim of the  highhandedness and victimisation of the Engr Tonye David -West led management.
The staff made this known in a chat with The Tide yesterday after the conclusion of the 10-man Administrative  Panel of Inquiry setup to investigate the labour unrest of the company last week in Port Harcourt.
Such evidence ranged from sack of staff with due process, bartering and stoppage of staff salaries.
The affected staff who chose to be anonymous, said the issue of bartering became a sort of practice in the establishment as most staff receive their portion almost on daily basis.
They recalled how a Director in the company slapped a staff at a Workshop in Warri, Delta State, that led to shutdown of operations in the establishment upon their return to Port Harcourt.
Melted on them by the me ranging from sack of victims without due process, bartering and stoppage of salaries, According to them, the panel also proceeded to kpong and Egberu farms in the state which ought to have hosted Songhai Model farms,  but failed due to poor management.
“The farms at Egberu in Oyigbo Local Government Area, was supposed to be a Model Shanghai farm with the aim of taking care of staff welfare and other projects, but management killed it”, they said.
Another point of worry by the staff, was the inability of the management to manage the Youth Empowerment programme constituted by President Muhammad Buhari to eradicate youth unrest at Egberu and its environs.
It was further learnt that N10.000  allowance ear-marked by the Federal Government for the Youth farm programme was also not judiciously utilized by the management.
”Some of them (youth) were on ground to attest to it’s abandonment by David West and also their supposed Ten Thousand naira allowance which was also embezzled”, they added.
The Tide gathered that the chairman of the committee, Gboye Onyekanmi (Esq), returned with some of the evidence presented by the staff to its Headquarters in Abuja, and are expected to come up with recommendations in the next one month.
All efforts to get the other side of the report by the management  proved abortive as the Managing Director could not pick or return all calls placed on his personal cell phone line.