Samson Folarin
No fewer than 250 staff of Television Continental at Ikosi, Ketu, Lagos State, have been rendered jobless after arsonists burnt the station.
The Chief Executive Officer of the station, Mr Andrew Hanlon, added that over 500 direct employees of the station had been struggling to work in temporary accommodation put up by the company.
Halon stated these on Thursday when the state Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, visited the management and staff of the station.
Some hoodlums attacked the station after the #EndSARS protest turned violent.
Transmission gadgets, state-of-the-art studios, production rooms and operational vehicles of TVC, including cars of staff, were set ablaze.
Hanlon took the governor round the main auditorium, which was the hub of the TV station’s operation. It was razed.
The auditorium housed three main studios, three control rooms, three master control rooms and a central transmission laboratory said to have been equipped with modern communication gadgets worth millions of dollars.
All left in the building were charred materials.
He said, “After the rioters invaded our premises and set the place on fire, some buildings in the premises survived. But the main transmission building was completely destroyed and it was the hub of our operations. The rioters cast fear and terror in the hearts of our employees when they broke in last week’s Wednesday morning.
“People’s hard work and huge investment that went down into the TV station were destroyed in a period of about an hour. The incident was really traumatising for all of us. The rioters left immense devastation. The entire interior of the building was destroyed. This is all that is left of our bubbling building, which was a centrepiece. Thankfully, no member of staff died in the incident.”
Hanlon said the immediate priority of the management of the TV station was to ensure that all direct employees were looked after, stressing that the means of livelihood of thousands of indirect workers attached to the brand had been threatened.
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