“Produce officer that pulled trigger” – LASG tells police, tasks Chi Limited to compensate victims’ families
Lagos State government has cited a lack of proper administrative structure at Chi Limited as the reason for the protest that led to the death of two casual workers at the company.
Earlier reports had revealed irate casual workers protested against the discrimination they said the company had been showing in favour of full time staff. The workers then attempted to make away with the company’s products as their “deserved” yuletide gifts.
The state government has condemned Chi Limited on its handling of the crisis, saying it could have been better managed.
The Commissioner for Commerce, Industry and Cooperative, Mr. Rotimi Ogunleye called for compensation for the deceased’s families.
Police authorities have also been tasked to fish out the policeman that pulled the trigger and bring him to justice.
“For us in government, we place high value on the lives of every Lagosian. That is why we have summoned the company and we are interested in seeing the end of this incident. We want the police to conduct an in-house investigation to determine the officer that pulled the trigger and sanction that person,” the commissioner said Thursday.
“We have told the company to compensate the deceased’s family regardless of whether he was outsourced or not.”
The company, in its statement, however denies that two persons were killed. The other victim, it insists, was recuperating at its hospital.
A statement signed by its Group Head, Corporate Affairs, Bode Sojobi, read in part: “The night shift workers resumed work without any problems until around 4.30am when some of them decided to stop work two hours to the end of the shift, switched off the light and proceeded to take away company’s products without authorisation. In the course of doing this, they attacked other personnel on the premises and policemen.
“The internal security personnel tried without success to persuade them to have a rethink. When they overpowered the internal security men, the members of the Nigeria Police Force at the gate stepped in to bring the situation under control.
“In the course of the encounter with the police, two of the workers sustained gunshot injuries. They were rushed to a nearby company-retained hospital for treatment. One of the injured workers is in stable condition in the hospital.
“As an organisation that places high premium on human lives, the death is immensely painful to us. The management immediately sent a delegation to condole with the family of the deceased.
“We are surprised and saddened by this event because prior to this incident, there had been no dispute between the company and its workforce. We later learnt that some workers felt that there had been discrimination in the distribution of products of the company as Christmas gifts, and then decided without authorisation to take company products for themselves as their own Christmas gifts.”
