Former Chief Press Secretary to the former Osun State Governor and Deputy editor at The Sun Newspaper, Ismail Omipidan, has sensationally revealed how his former boss and former Managing Director of The Sun Publishing, almost destroyed his reputation for no just reason.
The revelation is contained in the book, “Persona Non Grata,”‘ authored by Ismail Omipidan, which was unveiled in Abuja, last Saturday.
According to Omipidan: “I came as a senior correspondent from Maiduguri. It was after I resumed at Abuja that my other colleagues were promoted to senior correspondents. I noticed that I was not recommended for promotion unlike my other colleagues. It was only when I was drafted to start The Spectator that I was promoted.
“Owing to the frustration, I got fed up and opted to leave The Sun. I wrote my resignation letter and gave them a month notice in accordance with the rules of engagement. While the notice was on, I started hearing lots of stories concerning me from the editor, Northern Operations as regards the reason I was leaving.
“I had once told him about my ordeal at the Weekly Trust, so he told people that it was my character to always look for excuses to leave. When the MD, Mr Mike Awoyinfa informed me, I told him that God would forgive the man behind the allegation.
“Somehow, however, it was clear that the management did not want me to go and two weeks to the expiration of the notice I gave, I was invited to Lagos. In Lagos, a senior management member advised me not to ask for promotion because from all indications, the management would do anything I wanted and that I should just relate my ordeal to the management and they would work on it if the reason for the exit is something that could be corrected. I related my frustrations to the DMD, late Dimgba Igwe. In his response, Dimgba said: ‘Eric is not the owner of The Sun. Do not let him frustrate you out of The Sun. The same way you were employed was the same way we employed him. In life, when people are climbing up the ladder, there would be distractions. But you who are climbing must remain focused and not give in to the distractions. In any responsible organisation, when a good hand is leaving, you find out the reason. If it is what you can fix to prevent the good hand from leaving, you fix it and stop the resignation. But if it is not what can be fixed, you take precautions to prevent it from happening again. You have a future here. Ask around, a lot of your other colleagues have left; I did not bother to engage them. So, you have to withdraw your resignation letter.’ I did.
“He put a call through to Mr Osagie in my presence and asked him to relocate the Deputy Bureau Chief from the cubicle downstairs to one of the empty spaces upstairs and allocate the cubicle to me. By the time I got back to the Abuja office, Mr Osagie had asked that the cubicle be demolished and a chair and table put there for me to stay.
“A colleague of mine, Mr Murphy Ganagana, probably did not know the rationale behind the demolition; he placed his table and chair there. I politely told him that he could not stay there and that he should find out from Mr Osagie that I was the rightful owner of the space. I do not know if he did, but he stopped bothering me. That was how I knew that the Editor, Northern Operations harboured some kind of disdain for me. What pained me most was that I served him diligently,” Omipidan who further disclose that the only query in his file at The Sun was issued him by the same Mr. Osagie, said.
