A popular supermarket chain, Sahad Stores, has sacked a manager and 74 other members of staff over missing N250 million, DAILY NIGERIAN has reliably gathered.
Our reporter gathered that all the staff of the two branches of the supermarket in Kano, located at Zoo Road and Mandawari areas, were dismissed.
The decision was taken on July 4, following annual stock and account audit, which shows the missing funds.
Chairman of the company, Ibrahim Mijinyawa, confirmed the mass dismissal to DAILY NIGERIAN, saying he took the decision after discovering that some funds were missing after the annual audit.
“As I am talking to you now I have replaced all of them, including the manager. It is a fateful incident, so all of us should accept the fate.
“I learnt the new manager has re-employed some of them. That is his decision. Possibly he trusts them. If they want to claim compensation, they should go ahead. I don’t want trouble and I don’t want to fight with my staff,” he said.
But one of the affected workers, Fatihu Hafizu, said the business mogul sacked them without querying them or telling them their offence.
He however said that they were later told that N250 million was missing after the audit, a situation that angered Mr Mijinyawa to sack them all.
According to Mr Hafizu, since the establishment of the company about 30 years ago, there had been annual stock and account auditing but no reported loss.
He also said all the staff received bonuses every year as a motivation, except this year when they were rewarded with sack letters.
“But this year, we have seen a different approach. Immediately after the audit, the chairman summoned us to a meeting, and announced our dismissal.
“We were left wondering why he took the harsh decision after some of us spent over 20 years, some 15, some even 25 years at the company without record of fraud.
“We don’t know what happened. It was later we heard that the sum of N250 million was missing after the audit. I swear to God that did not happen,” he said.
Mr Hafizu therefore called on the governor of Kano State Abdullahi Ganduje and the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, to intervene in the matter.
He noted that most of them have families to cater for, saying the dismissal could affect their families.
The former shopkeeper also appealed to Mr Mijinyawa to pay them severance package to enable them start up small businesses in order to take care of their families.
DAILY NIGERIAN reports that the two branches were closed down for a while, but reopened after the change of management staff.
