The Executive Governor of Lagos state, Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Thursday visited the management and workers of the Television Continental (TVC) days after the station was attacked by a mob.
The governor, Sanwo-Olu visited the station located in Ikosi, Lagos to sympathise with the management and workers of the station on the incident.
While receiving the governor and his entourage, the Chief Executive Officer of the station, Mr. Andrew Hanlon narrated his ordeal in the hands of arsonists during the attack on the station last Wednesday.
Hanlon, who took the governor and others round the destroyed building, said transmission gadgets, state-of-the-art studios, production rooms and operational vehicles went up in flames after the hoodlums set the premises ablaze.
A broad hole left on the double-layer wall of the central studio of the station and the completely razed main auditorium, which was the main hub of the station’s operation, showed the extent of the damage at the station.
The auditorium housed three main studios, three control rooms, three master control rooms and a central transmission laboratory said to have been equipped with modern communication gadgets worth millions of Dollars. They were destroyed.
The governor was also shown burnt vehicles belonging to the station and the employees.
Narrating his experience, the CEO said: “After the rioters invaded our premises and set the place on fire, some buildings on the premises survived. But the main transmission building was completely destroyed. It was the hub of our operations. The rioters terrorised our workers when they broke in on that Wednesday morning.
“People’s hard work and huge investment at the TV station were destroyed in about an hour. The incident was really traumatising for all of us. The interior of the building was destroyed. This is all that is left of our bubbling building, which was a centrepiece. Thankfully, no member of staff died in the inferno.”
Hanlon said the immediate priority of the management was to ensure that direct employees were looked after; stressing that the means of livelihood of thousands of indirect workers attached to the brand had been threatened.
He said efforts were being made to return TVC to its full operations, promising that the station would bounce back stronger than it was.
He said more than 250 production workers had been out of work since the incident occurred, adding that over 500 direct employees of the station had been struggling to work in a temporary accommodation put up by the company.
Governor Sanwo-Olu was accompanied by Deputy Governor Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, Deputy Chief of Staff Mr. Gboyega Soyannwo and Commissioner for Information and Strategy Mr. Gbenga Omotoso.
