Workers in packaging and printing company, Toppan
Packaging Company Limited located on Ladipo Oluwole in Ikeja Industrial Estate
could not believe what they witnessed on Friday the 13th December 2013. The
shift manager, a Lebanese of the name Kaveh Noine beat up the Cleaning Unit
Supervisor Mrs. Alice Ossai in their presence, due to what he deemed negligence
on her part. His grouse was that a portion of the factory was littered with
dirt and she failed in her responsibility to rein in her team to keep the
factory floor spick and span. Frantic efforts by Ossai to explain why the
portion of the factory was littered with dirt, even after she was assaulted was
rebuffed by Noine who shouted her down and asked her to come with him to his
office fuming with rage; exasperated staff members on duty went in with Ossai
in a bid to collectively explain the supposed duty breach. Noine rained blows
on Ossai and kicking her repeatedly, without sparing her tummy even though she
was seven months pregnant.
Like many Nigerians working under similar conditions,
took everything calmly even though she complained to her close friends that she
was in deep pain put up a bold face and continued with her duty, bearing the
shame and physical assault in her stride all in a bid to secure her job and
that of two of her siblings who also work in the company. However; when the
news of her assault reached her two siblings; they made an attempt to retaliate
on her behalf, Ossai dissuaded them from physically roughing up Noine, begging
them to consider the financial burden they bear with the twelve thousand naira
month salary paid each of them, as any attempt to confront Noine will
eventually lead to their collective loss of income, a situation they cannot
cope with giving the fact that they have an aged sick mother to take care off
as well as other regular and emerging bills to pay. Pregnant Ossai was helped
home by some of her co-workers and her siblings that day; she resumed work the
next day a Saturday 14th December even as the pain continued intermittently,
even in pains and being pregnant, she carried out her supervisory cleaning
assignments in order to save the family income. On Sunday she rested at home
being a work free day even as the pain increased. She resumed on Monday but the
pain had increased considerably and she could not carry out her cleaning
supervisory assignments, at a point she leaned on the mop stick and clutched
her stomach. By 10 pm on Monday she noticed patches of blood on her underwear,
the flow progressed steadily and rapidly into clots of blood dripping out of her.
Family members had to rush her to Glorious Mercy Hospital close to her house
where a Caesarian Section was carried out on Ossai, the Medical Director said
that Ossai prognosis revealed that the Placenta progressively detached from the
walls of Ossai’s Uterus, thereby Oxygen and other vital nutrients were denied
her Feotus in the days after the assault, hence the need to evacuate the foetus
and save Ossai’s life.
Efforts by Ossai family members to arrest Noine
yielded no result as he was said to have travelled to Canada on official
assignment; but National Daily newspaper investigative team discovered that
Noine was indeed in the office when a detachment of policemen from the Lagos
Area F Police Command stormed the Oluwole Ladipo office of Toppan Packaging Company
to effect his arrest. He hid in one of the disused offices and was later
ferried out through a rear gate. Staff members pointedly assert that the police
detachment is in collusion with the management as they failed to conduct a
thorough search even when they were given a tip about his where about. Ossai’s
family members refused to leave the premises of the company since they are
aware that Noine is hiding in one of the disused offices in the company and the
detachment from Area F were only playing to the gallery, it took a detachment
from the State Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) allegedly brought in by Toppan’s
management, to forcibly dispersed them on Tuesday the 17th December. When bold
members explained the development to SARS operatives they refused to make any
arrest, but advised that they don’t constitute a breach of public peace, and
should proceed to engage the services of a legal practitioner. All attempt by
National Daily to get an audience with the Area F Commander and the
Investigating Police Officer (IPO) over this incident as at press time proved
abortive, but one of the Inspectors who was on the failed arrest bid directed
this medium to the Public Relation Unit of the Command at Oduduwa in the Ikeja
Government Residential Area.
No comments:
Post a Comment