Surviving members of NUFBTE, Golden Guinea breweries holds church service

Fifteen years after redundancy, surviving staff of the Golden Guinea Breweries PLC, Umuahia Sunday gathered at the St Finbarrs Catholic Church, Umuahia to offer thanksgiving to God for sparing their lives since Monday 17th, 2003 when their brewery blew off.

Under the National Union of Food, Beverages and Tobacco Employees, NUFBTE the former workers, their families, extended relations, employers, friends and well-wishers, as well as interested stakeholders gathered among other reasons to thank God for being alive since then and for bringing a core investor in the person of Chie Barr Okey Nzenwa,

the presence of Abia State Government through Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu, sustenance of families of departed staff, God’s protection and what he is about to do in their lives.

The workers who spoke through their Umuahia branch chairman, Comrade Samuel Amanze said the occasion offered them the opportunity to count their blessings.

The workers traced their problem through the brewery’s boiler explosion in 2013 to insensibility and mismanagement by the then management of the brewery which was then under one Ifeanyi Idika as the Managing Director, MD.

To authenticate and proof their claim, the workers challenged then to “publish the result of Anti Bomb Squad from the Nigeria Police, Abia state Command, the report of the joint Anti Bomb Squad from the Nigeria Police, Police Force Headquarters, Abuja and Lagos,

to provide any certificate from Insurance company proving that the boiler and other machines in the brewery were duly insured, to provide evidence of remittance of any of the above mentioned deductions from our salaries and to challenge us in an open debate”.

They pleaded with the core-investor to recall and re-integrate all existing staff of the brewery before employment of new ones.

Responding, the core-investor and oil and gas magnet, Chief Barr Sir Okey Nzenwa expressed his desire to turn around the economic fortunes of Umuahia through the creation of jobs adding “we are going into international competition with brand new equipment”.

He disclosed that all products of the brewery, including Bergedorf beer will be returned, assuring that he will work on their competence and skills.

It would be recalled that on Monday 17th of January, 2003, the brewery was forced into redundancy when the boiler exploded, killing about three staff and one customs officer.

Since then, subsequent administrations in the state have made fruitless efforts to revive the place, until now, under the administration of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu.