Sacked staff of Abuja Film Village have cried out to the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Minister, Nyesom Wike, to come to their aid and upturn their unlawful termination by the then managing director of the organization, Mrs. Francisca Ibezim.

Spokesman of the aggrieved sacked staff, Habila Kayit, in a statement, in Abuja, yesterday, said the Abuja Film Village International had 27 staff, comprising both senior and junior cadres, but who have now been sacked.

He said: “The Film Village has been in existence since 2007, but unable to achieve its set objectives as expected.

”While we express worries on the inability of the entity to run with its vision, the staff are always active with laudable initiatives but get turned down by the then management for paucity of funds and bottlenecks from the FCT administration.

“However, reports and engagements with some of the management staff of the FCTA revealed failure of the then management of the film village to build the company on the path of sustainability and best practices. In view of the above, we dissociate ourselves from their decisions as our consent was not sought before taking those decisions.

“The plight of the sacked film village staff is better imagined than experienced especially at the time when those receiving their salaries as at when due are struggling to stay afloat.

”We and our dependents are going through untold hardship and life has increasingly become unbearable for us as we can no longer provide the basic necessities of life for our households.

”Feeding is a problem and some of our children are out of school for non-payment of fees while some of our colleagues have received eviction notices from their landlords.

“When the then Minister, Muhammadu Musa Bello came on-board in 2015, he made frantic efforts to reposition FCTA business holdings including Abuja Film Village for profitability and better service delivery. In the case of Abuja film village, he constituted a committee to review the activities of the Abuja Film Village and make recommendations to the administration. ”However, a five man committee comprising of Director Human Resources Management, Director Office of the Permanent Secretary, Director Treasury, the Solicitor General and Deputy Director SERVICOM to investigate the cause of the complaints of non-payment of the salaries of staff of the Abuja Film Village International for thirty months (January 2018-June 2020) and to examine factors affecting the operational efficiency and management of the Agency.

”In view of the human factor of the committee assignment, the minister in his magnanimity graciously approved the payment of thirty month’s salary arrears being owed the staff of Abuja Film Village.

“The committee, through its report, admitted that all staff of the film village were recruited via appointment letters issued on the letter headed paper of the office of the minister, FCT and also signed on his behalf.

”The committee notes that this implies that they are staff of the Federal Capital Territory Administration. However, the FCTA wrote Abuja Investment Company Limited, mandating it to take both the assets and liability of the Abuja Film Village. Since then, we have been receiving our emoluments from AICL until our unlawful disengagement.

“Owing to the current economic realities and inability of the film village to pay our salaries from January till September 2022, we wrote an appeal letter to request payment of our arrears and we received an invitation for a meeting.

”We were at the meeting venue where we received the shock of our lives with an outright termination letter with one month salary in lieu of notice with no other benefit. However, no AFVI Staff was ever indicted for any form of misconduct whatsoever and at no point was anyone invited to face any disciplinary committee.

“After the sack of the entire film village staff, a whopping N400 million was allocated to the Film Village for the 2023 budget by the National Assembly, with no permanent staff except the then managing director, yet the dismissed staff are left to fate.

”However, the then managing director resorted to use contract staff to run the office before she was relieved of her job by the minister on September 31, 2023.

“We call on the minister of the Federal Capital Territory Administration,Nyesom Wike, to wade in and intervene as the father of all on the injustice meted out on aggrieved sacked staff of the Abuja Film Village.

”We demand the immediate reinstatement of the unlawful termination of our employment and appeal for the full payment of our salaries and arrears over the time of the unlawful disengagement.

”We wish to state explicitly that the outstanding salary arrears paid to us before the termination can never be pay off package as posited in some quarters. Therefore, nothing was given to the unlawful sacked film village staff other than our statutory monthly salaries and one month salary in lieu of the termination.

“We call for the immediate investigation of the N400 million allocated in the 2023 budget for the AFVI by the National Assembly. Kindly note that Abuja Film Village, as of now, has no single permanent staff as the then Managing Director,Mrs. Francisca Ibezim, was the only staff and has been relieved of her job by the minister.

”Therefore, we call for urgent intervention as government properties and resources cannot be entrusted in the hands of contract staff.

“The prevailing economic hardship has made it very difficult for employed people to meet up with family needs and the AFVI management is sending us to the streets after putting up our most productive years and still willing to help actualize the dream of building the film village. Kindly save our dependents from this unwarranted suffering.

“The film village project is an economic spinner, a job creation magnet, employment driver and a sure plug for revenue generation. Government must ensure that the film village concept is sustained for the good of country and the economy.”

The Abuja film Village International AFVI,a subsidiary of Abuja Investments Company Ltd, AICL, is an agency of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, envisioned to make Abuja and, by extension Nigeria, the centre for film and entertainment excellence.

Over 5,000 hectares of land was allocated for the project in Kusaki and Yanga districts of Kuje Area Council for the actualization of the Abuja Film village project from inception in 2008.

(Vanguard)