For sometime now, there have been murmurs here and there that Payporte, the official sponsor of the reality game show, Big Brother Naija, has been owing its staff and former employees salaries from 2017.
There have been claims by the former staff of the organization that the reason behind this is due to the lavish spending of the CEO, Eyo Bassey, and also the money Payporte spends in funding the BB Naija reality show.
Sadly, this has now been exclusively confirmed to Kemi Filani Blog.
In a revealing chat with Kemi Filani Blog, a victim of the brand’s maltreatment, Iquo Okpo, opened up thus and also provided evidence.
Please read below:
“Personally I haven’t been paid December 2017, January and February 2018 salary.
The non payment of salaries started in August 2017. At first, I thought it was something that would blow over, atleast that is what Mr Bassey Eyo made us believe.
Regardless of the situation, myself and other colleagues kept going to work hoping things will go back to normal. That is how dedicated and committed I was to Payporte.
Even when my requests for salary advance were ignored, I kept going to work, Even when it seemed the business was going to crash, very low sales and sellers were pulling their products from the platform and coming to the office to cause scenes due to their inability to get their money…even when business partners were pulling out and we were hearing about court cases here and there, we still believed in Eyo Bassey our boss and stood by him.
September 2017 salary was paid in November 2017 for some employees while October 2017 salary was paid in December 2017 and November 2017 salary paid in February 2018. By this time, it had become difficult for majority of the staff, including myself, to commute to work due to lack of funds.
My employment was terminated without reason or notice on the 7th of March, 2 days after I sent a mail to the HR of my inability to go to work due to lack of funds.
I was asked about my outstanding and I was told I would be paid soon…I was given a date to show up at the office to complete my exit process which I agreed and told them I would be expecting my payment on the same date.
Prior to this, my daughter was having some health challenge which was part of the reasons I ran out of cash and couldn’t go to work, Few days later, her condition became critical and I had to rush her to the hospital.
At this point, I sent a message to my former colleague who happens to be dating the CEO, Mr Bassey.
She came to see me in the hospital and reported it to Mr Eyo Bassey who then sent her to come give me some money $700. I took the money cos I needed to pay her hospital bill and asked when I would get my balance. The total sum owed including my payment in lieu of notice is N800, 000, less $700 (255, 000) and I had an outstanding balance of N545,000 which has not been paid till this day.
After waiting, calling and no response, I sought legal counsel.
My lawyers wrote them giving them 7 days to respond. We are many with our own individual stories, some people cannot afford to seek legal regress and are afraid to speak out for fear of not being able to find employment afterwards. I am not required to complete any resignation modalities because I did not resign. I did what was required of me as stated in the termination clause of employment contract. Secondly, there was no scheduled exhibition. As a matter of fact, the project had been put on hold due to lack of funds.
I damned the consequences and decided to speak out because he had once said in my presence, the first time a staff ousted them using a hidden identity, that “blogs won’t carry it, no media would carry it unless someone comes forward and identifies themselves as a staff who is being owed. He also one threatened to have an ex staff picked because she held on to the official car the company gave her as collateral pending when she is being paid.”
After laboring and dedicating time, effort, resources, knowledge, expertise and experience to Payporte, is it fair to be treated this way?
Every employee that left Payporte since November 2017 till date, whether by resignation or termination, are yet to receive their outstanding salaries on the instruction of Eyo Bassey and employees who have left the organisation over a year and even 2 years ago are yet to have their tax and pension remitted to the appropriate government bodies responsible.
All of these are at the instruction of Bassey Eyo. Once an employee willfully exits the organisation against his wish, that employee becomes his enemy.”
Efforts made to reach out to Eyo Bassey for his reaction were declined as at the time of this report.
You can also keep up with the confessions of other staff on twitter following this hash tag #justiceforpayportestaff
