How female worker was allegedly Ki-lled by her Chinese boss in Abia | Read Details
A female employee of Inner Galaxy Steel Company LTD, a Chinese steel manufacturing company simply identified as Ocheze, has allegedly been kil-led by her boss in Asa, Ukwa West Local Government Area of Abia State.
Ocheze, a native of Umuahala community, reportedly died from the injuries she sustained after one of her Chinese bosses whose identity is yet to be ascertained, pushed her off a crane.
In August 2020, the Government of Abia State under the then Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, ordered an investigation into the activities of the Inner Galaxy Group after a private investigator with the Z (Twitter) handle, @Truthfully83, had on August 12 of the same year, in a series of tweets accused the company of maltreating its local workers, pointing to physical assa-ult, sexu-al harassment and bad working conditions.
The investigator had tweeted partly:
“Male Nigerian workers are physically as-saulted, while their female counterparts are sex-ually assa-ulted without any consequence. Chinese MASTERS will use derogatory words on Nigerian employees, and you dare not talk back at them because the consequence is grievous. After the physical assaults you will get, you will still be sacked. Chinese MASTERS will boast of killin-g you and getting away with it.
“Nigerians are treated worse than second-class citizens. The Chinese treat their Nigerian employees as lesser humans on their soil. For over three months and counting, Inner Galaxy Group has been holding workers hostage because of COVID-19. They locked the gates, denying workers access to go home. If you dare complain, the @PoliceNG DPO of Obehie police station CSP Isiguzo will be called to arrest you.”
However, the investigative committee set up by the state government and headed by the then Commissioner for Industry, Uwaoma Olewengwa, on September 18—one month later, dismissed the allegations against the company as “grossly exaggerated and included largely false claims.”
But in an interview published on August 14, 2023, the day Olewengwa’s committee was constituted by the then Deputy Gov. Ude Oko-Chukwu, an amputated former employee of the company, who had lost one of his legs to an industrial machine in the company, told Punch Newspapers of how the company stopped paying his hospital bills and abandoned him with just ₦20,000 and no compensation.
