Over 4,000 workers at the Atani Road Industrial Estate, Ogbaru Local Government Area, Anambra State, have lost their jobs, following the refusal of the Federal Government to assist industrialists who lost their machines to the 2011/12-flood disaster that ravaged the state.
Paul Okonkwo, Chairman, Pokobros Group of Companies said some companies in the estate closed shop because of the flood.
Okonkwo said that almost four years after the flood disaster that ravaged communities in the state and companies in the area, the Federal Government was yet to come to their rescue, even when they had written the Presidency and both arms of the National Assembly, NASS.
“The President himself constituted a panel to see what can be done for the industries, and the panel raised so much money, including money they brought from donor agencies in Europe and America and all walks of life, but up till today, our machines that the flood destroyed are still there unrepaired because of huge amount of money required to make them work.Even after the visit of the industries by the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN, nothing has happened in terms of help from the Federal Government. Some of you are aware that we have laid off over 4000 workers and contractors to some of our companies are also affected,” Okonkwo said.
He added that there is still danger, because the flood may happen again and any further delay in coming to the rescue of the companies will spell doom for some industries that are managing to produce, and their workers.
He further appealed to Olusegun Aganga, the Minister of Trade and Industries, and the Federal Government to visit the industrial estate and rescue them without further delay as more companies were folding up because of the effect of the flood disaster.
Some of the industries located in the area are Pokobros Group of Companies, Kristoral Group of Companies, Borillo Pipes Industries Limited, PZIndustries, Orange Drugs Industries Limited, Ejiagwu Industries Limited, Dozzy Group of companies Limited, Intafact Company, a subsidiary of SaBMillierGroup, brewers of Hero larger Beer, Grand Malt, and a host of others.
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