How Pharmaceutical Company, SWIPHA Used Police Dogs To Sack 300 Workers

CYRIACUS IZUEKWE

The Management of the SWIPHA Pharmaceutical Company Limited has engaged the services of the Nigerian Police dogs which they used to chase away over 300 workers from the company premises without benefits.

The incident happened at the company’s headquarters located at the Dopemu area of the Lagos.

P.M.EXPRESS scooped that the management sent text messages to some workers midnight on Thursday that the company has been shut and surrounded the premises with dogs which attacked and chased away the workers from the premises.

Following the manner the company was shut and workers disengaged, the workers embarked on daily protests condemning the manner they were treated.

Trouble started after the new director changed the leadership and engaged the services of a Lebanese to manage the company.

The new management gave sets of conditions of service which were subjects of negotiation between the workers and the management.

It was gathered that while the negotiations were going on, the management had another motive which they carried out last week by closing the company, using dogs and other security agents to chase away the company workers from the premises.

When our correspondent visited the company, the angry workers were seen in front of the gate singing solidarity songs and insisting they should be recalled back to work.

Some of the workers who spoke to P.M.EXPRESS said that the closure of the company was a ploy by the management to shortchange the workers who had spent so many years without paying them retirement benefits.

This could not be confirmed by the members of management who were said to have gone underground since they shut the company.

Some of the workers insisted that the management should recall them or pay them off if they want to lay off the workers.

At the entrance gate, security was tight and the gate was under lock and key.

When P.M.EXPRESS correspondent contacted the security men at the gate, they declined to speak and told our reporter that there was no top management officer around to speak on the matter.

However, a source at the gate confirmed that police dogs were brought but for security purpose.

The source explained that those dogs had not been used to attack the workers since the crises started.