Abuja Film Village’s sacked workers have appealed to FCT minister Nyesom Wike for reinstatement.

The workers made the appeal in a statement issued on Tuesday by their spokesman, Habila Kayit.

It stated that the AFV’s former management, under its then-managing director, Francisca Ibezim, had in September 2022 terminated the appointment of 27 employees.

The statement said, “We call on the honourable minister of the FCT, Barr Nyesom Wike, to wade in by revisiting the matter to ensure we return to work. This call becomes necessary as the challenges of being jobless have been telling on us and our dependants.

“We demand the immediate reinstatement of the unlawful termination of our employment and appeal for the full payment of our salaries and arrears over the time of the unlawful disengagement.

“We wish to state explicitly that the outstanding salaries arrears paid to us before the termination can never be a pay-off package as posited in some quarters.”

The AFV statement claimed the sacked workers were invited on September 30, 2022, for a staff meeting where they received the termination letter with one month’s salary in lieu of notice with no other benefit.

“However, no AFV staff was ever indicted for any form of misconduct whatsoever and at no point was anyone invited to face any disciplinary committee,” it said. “We were employed on a full-time basis as staff of Abuja Film Village International with the directive letterhead of the honourable minister FCT.”

The AFV aggrieved workers added, “Some of us have been under the employment of the agency for over 15 years and had performed our duties diligently. Also, deductions and remittances in the form of taxes, health insurance, and housing schemes, among others, were collected from source since inception till the day we received the unlawful termination letters.

“We have followed all administrative channels to seek reinstatement but all to no avail, hence the resolve to cry out for help.”

The AFV, created in 2008, is a subsidiary of Abuja Investment Company Ltd (AICL), envisioned to make Abuja a filmmaking and entertainment hub.

The film village was conceived to be developed as a public-private partnership (PPP) initiative with a mandate to build a world-class entertainment city for professional filmmakers and a destination for tourism.

Over 5,000 hectares of land were allocated for the project in the Kusaki and Yanga Districts of Kuje Area Council to actualise the Abuja film village project.

(NAN)