Modebe market crisis : I am not bias, case is in court -Anambra Commissioner

By Cyprian Ebele, Onitsha

As the crisis rocking the Provision section (market), of the Modebe Enterprises Ltd, Ochanja, Onitsha, Anambra state deepens, the State Commissioner for Commerce, Nomso Ebonwu, Monday, denied allegations by aggrieved traders that include, 

Former chairman of Onitsha International Electronics market and a Chieftain of All Progressive Grand Alliance, (APGA) Izu Okoye, that he is biased and incompetent to be in that office going by the way he is handling the matter.

Ebonwu described the accusations as a figment of their own imagination stating that the case is pending in a court of competent jurisdiction and as such it will amount to subjudice if he intervenes.

The Commissioner who spoke through his Public Relations Officer, PRO, Ebelechukwu Odili, reiterated that he has nothing to say in the matter that is still pending in court recalling that the case has been in court even before he assumed duty as the Commissioner for Commerce.

“”That Modebe case has been there even before Commissioner Ebonwu took over as the Commissioner for Commerce. He doesn’t  have anything to say about the Modebe Enterprises market crisis. Everything about Modebe is in court. Anybody telling you that Commissioner is biased and incompetence is not saying the truth 

“I am telling you that the Commissioner can not be biased, he doesn’t have anything to say about Modebe in a case that is in court. So those Modebe Enterprises’ cases that are in court, the Commissioner will not say anything,”PRO maintained

The PRO disclosed further that markets have desk officers where cases are channeled to  for settlement and ones that could not be settled within the scope of the desk officer transferred to the Commissioner.

“So if the traders have a problem they should get to the Redress desk, they have the numbers to call to get the desk officer so that their case will be addressed. 

What we know is that if you have any issue go to that desk. That desk officer stands to address any issue pertaining to markers. When it is too difficult to handle, 

it is then that the Commissioner may come in. So let them address any issue they have to the desk officer,” she advised.

“The traders know how to settle their issues without involving the media. They don’t need to be going to the media because they know the case is in court. Commissioner can not jump protocol,” the PRO further explained.

Fielding questions from newsmen, Okoye who is a witness to both lease agreements revealed that, “Commissioner is biased and incompetent to hold the office because there are two lease agreements on the three-storey (plaza) in dispute between the builder of the market, Sunday Okechukwu and  provision traders.

“The first lease agreement of #10million paid by Okechukwu on behalf of the traders was withdrawn because the traders said they will not refund Okechukwu the #10million he used his money to pay that it was a scam by him that they were not interested. 

So the lease was cancelled and Modebe Enterprises told Okechukwu that since the traders were not interested if he wants to take over the project of building a three storey plaza in four months that he should pay extra #15 million to make it #25 million for another (2nd) lease agreement and he did and built the plaza 

“Paragraph nine (9) of the second lease agreement stated that this second agreement supersedes both the first agreement and any other with respect to the plaza lease agreement, but when the Commissioner went through the two lease agreements he took side with the first agreement.

“Why he took side with the first one according to him, is because since the traders have no money to pay for the building of the plaza, it would have been given to outsiders to build and again that it is greed on the part of Okechukwu to fund the building alone.

“That is why we said the commissioner is biased and incompetent to hold the office because what he said did not arise. He should either be removed or be swapped with the Commissioner for Agriculture because even a layman understands this issue.

“EFCC both in Enugu and Awka, including Abuja police have after going through the matter maintained that Okechukwu is the owner of the plaza having used his money to build it. 

The issue is that there is a daughter of the Modebe family that met with the Commissioner to have a third lease agreement to possibly double the amount Okechukwu paid, (#25 million lease agreement).

“The lady is based in Portharcourt and uses police to intimidate traders when she is neither a signatory nor an official of the Modebe Enterprises limited. She claims to be a security personnel,” Okoye disclosed.