Aba Chinese slave camp: The facts, the fables and Inner Galaxy

Situated at the Inner Galaxy Industrial Park, in Ahala Ukwu Village, Umuahala Community, Obuzor Ukwu Autonomous, Ukwa West L.G.A, Abia State, Inner Galaxy Steel Company Limited, a subsidiary of the Inner Galaxy Group is currently facing one of the negative impacts of the Social Media.

The fire of controversy was ignited on August 12 by a Tweet from an alleged private investigator with the handle, @Truthfully83, who accused the company of physical assault on its workers, sexual harassment and bad working conditions, among others.

These claims from a twitter handle of someone who claimed to have tactically gotten a job at the company just to have a first hand experience of the maltreatment of the workers, sent anger into the hearts of Nigerians as reactions set the social media with blazing anger.

This made investigations and fact finding by Sunday Telegraph on the allegations became necessary within and outside Inner Galaxy’s premises. And our findings are completely the opposite of the narrative in the tweet.

Abia State Government has also set up a panel of inquiry under its Ministry of Industries to investigate the allegations and so far, the host community, Umuahala Community, Obuzor Ukwu Autonomous in their appearance at the hearing in Umuahia spoke favourably about the company.

The first truth discovered at the steel company was that the company’s lowest paid worker (a cleaner) earns between N60,000-70,000 which is far more than the N30,000 state governments in Nigeria are struggling to pay as minimum wage to civil servants. It was also revealed that contrary to the tweet the company has built the spirit of teamwork among the management and the staff.

Mr. Andy Lu, Group Managing Director, Inner Galaxy Steel, while responding to the allegations of forcing staff to work inside the company against their wishes and other welfare issues, described Nigeria as his second home and a country he is very connected to. “I came to Nigerian 12 years ago.

We set up our first manufacturing company in Lagos and for over 12 years I’ve been working here. Nigeria is like my second hometown. My life is connected with this country. “About five years ago, I came myself to South East and South South to locate our second plant in Nigeria. As at that time, we had options of Port Harcourt, Imo, Abia and Enugu. Finally for some reasons, we decided to set up our Industrial Park here in Abia.

“The community has been very friendly and very supportive to us. So, all these years we’ve been developing here. Five years ago, here was just bush with no structure, but today we have industries with a lot of people employed to work here.”

Mr. Lu said that at the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the company was faced by the challenge of closing down “but after a lot of discussion with the board, we decided that we should implement some safety protocols in the company so that our can remain in their jobs and able to feed their families at this critical time.

At the end we left everything in the hands of our staff to decide voluntarily whether they want to continue work or go home. “The company made an offer, those who agreed to stay within the company premises until the pandemic is over  and restrictions in movement relaxed will be housed in temporarily, hastily erected accommodation as such did not exist prior to this time.

“Those who could not stay, either because they have families they could not abandon in the middle of a pandemic, particularly when no one could predict how long it would last or for other reasons will be reabsorbed once the crisis was over or abates and things return to normal.”

According to him, while furloughed, they will be paid N15, 000 per month until they resumed work. Those who chose to remain within the premises to work will receive their full salaries and substantial bonuses calculated according to their level; the bonus is between N20,000 N30,000 monthly.

“Most of our staff were happy with us about the issue,” he said. Some of the staff who spoke to our reporter in confidence during the course of the investigation revealed that the company has a lot of bonding programmes and work-life balance platforms aimed at building corporate intimacy within management and staff. Mr. Ifeanyi Nmeka, a factory worker who has been with Inner Galaxy for over two years in his response, said that he has never regretted working at the company from his first day.

“This company has been very good to me. Ever since I started work here, I’ve never regretted it. They pay us well. Personally, I’m enjoying my stay here. If one is unhappy, it’s difficult to hide it. Again, anger is not hidden from the face or heart. Honestly, they’ve been so kind and I can’t thank them enough,” he said.

Reacting to the alleged abandonment of injured workers, the company’s legal adviser, Barrister Nnamdi Nwokeocha-Ahaaiwe said that the tweet employ half truth to mis-characterized what really happened.

He confirmed that the two highlighted industrial accidents actually took place within the premises of the Inner Galaxy Steel Company, but debunked the reports of sack and abandonment of the affected persons with documents (hospital bills and receipts) picture evidences.

“They published pictures of those who had Industrial accidents here which is true, those accidents occurred, but now, they alleged that those people were abandoned to their fate and sacked without compensations. Many Nigerians were attracted to such because nobody will feel happy to see or hear such.

“Industrial accidents are recorded all over the world. The tweet highlighted just two which he couldn’t provide their names, but I’ll react to those. One is that of Mr. Amos Teseer, a cook who had severe burns.

“This company retained some of the best hospitals in Nigeria located in Port Harcourt. This company spent N6.3 million on Teseer’s case receipted. This was never mentioned on the tweet. All the said was that he was abandoned and immediately Nigerians saw that, they became outraged.

“The other person who had an accident is Mr. Elohor Edehor Eshke, who mistakenly while resting placed his left foot on the rain track when the operator who did not observe him operated the panel to make cart moving on the rail which unfortunately cause Elohor Eshke’s left foot smashed.

“He was immediately carried into the hospital. This was another picture that they posted and they also forgot to say that this company spent N1.9 million on him.

The documents are here with me for further verifications. His own compensation has not been completed,” he said.  (Sunday Telegraph)