Atleast more
than 145 employees of Television Continental Broadcasting Service, which
operates TVC News, TVC Nigeria, and TVC Entertainment.
The media
conglomerate’s owner is Bola Tinubu, a Nigerian politician who was a Governor
of Lagos State as well as a founder and national leader of the ruling All
Progressive Congress (APC).
Saharareporters reported that there was heavy security presence at the firm as the sacking was carried
out. They added that some of the fired employees were pioneers at the broadcast
outfit.
A source
close to Mr. Tinubu told our correspondent that the decision to carry out the
mass firing of staff was approved by the political chieftain “because he is
tired of throwing money into the TV station without reaping any profit.” The
source added that the former governor ordered the management of the media firm
to come up with measures to drastically reduce overhead costs, especially
workers’ salaries that reportedly ran into 200 million naira each month.
SaharaReporters
learned that TVC had 450 employees, including those employed at “TVC Africa,”
the international arm of TVC that has now been shut down completely. A former
staff of the TV network told SaharaReporters that the station received ample
advert funds from 57 local government areas in the state. Two other TVC
management staffers told SaharaReporters that while Mr. Tinubu may be
collecting funds from local government areas in the name of TV programming, the
network received only a fraction of the funds. They disclosed that the funds
were usually routed through one Shola Lawal to buy airtime on behalf of the
local governments.
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