Rights group blasts Sowore over poor workers’ welfare

• Says “his reporters are not paid salary nor issued letter of employment”

An Abuja-based pressure group , the Society for Rule of Law in Nigeria (SRLN) is worried over what it called ‘slavish’ treatment of own workers by SaharaReporters.

Sahara Reporters is a news agency owned by a rights activist, Omoyele Sowore.

The group alleged that the news agency pays paltry sum of money per story published for reporters without employment letters.

The group, which accused the owner of SaharaReporters, Omoyele Sowore, of living large while underpaying his workers, added that editorial staff members of

Sowore’s SaharaReporters do not have any letter of employment stating their conditions of service and entitlements.

Rising from its meeting in Abuja on Sunday, the SRLN lamented in a statement by its Coordinator, Dr Chima Ubeku, that reporters who daily risk their lives to report stories for SaharaReporters are paid peanuts while Sowore is paying over N200 million as school fees for one of his children per annum.

It said it was even more worrisome that Sowore, owner of the online media platform, has been everywhere, agitating that policemen should not earn less than ₦500,000 per month when his own editorial staff members are not paid any salary.

The SRLN described as inhumane, a situation where those working for Sowore are not formally and properly employed and are being paid per story, without any fixed monthly remuneration.

“It is sad that Sowore, who claims to be a human rights activist is contravening the Labour Act, 2004, which is the principal legislation governing employment relation in Nigeria,” the group said.

The SRLN called on the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) to intervene and save journalists working in SaharaReporters from slavery they are being subjected to by Sowore.