An Enugu North Magistrate Court, on Friday, executed a Warrant for Possession of Premises occupied by Aqua Rapha Investment Company Ltd for a wholesale business in Enugu.

The company used the rented apartment at No. 4 Savage Crescent, GRA, Enugu as depot for distribution of her products at the heart of Enugu metropolis but allegedly defaulted in paying the rent.

The eviction, which lasted several hours, saw the company’s products, equipment, files and other documents evacuated from the building and dumped on the major road just opposite Shoprite main gate in Enugu.

While executing the eviction order, the court bailiff also recovered a sales vault containing a total cash of N773,520 before sealing and putting the building, which hitheto served as wholesale apartment of the company, under lock and key.

Explaining what led to the eviction, the Counsel to Dr and Mrs Ben Ogbu, Barr. James Edeh, said that his client the property owners, are tried of the unfaithfulness of the managers of the company in paying agreed rent as contained in the signed tenancy agreement.

Edeh noted that the company failed to abide fully with the initial three years tenancy agreement entered into in 2016 which elapsed in 2018.

“The company failed to pay an agreed installment of N300,000 meant for school fees for 2017 and 2018 after paying that of 2016 and lump sum of the tenancy agreement,” he said.

According to him, “even when the initial agreed tenancy elapsed in 2018, the company find it difficult to come and renegotiate the agreement but waited after we took them to court to come drop N4 million without renegotiate or signing a fresh agreement to be supervised by me.”

Office equipment and furniture removed from the depot by Court Bailif  

He said: “Before paying the N4 million after being in oblivion for some years, the company representative, Mr Nwankwo, was instructed to meet with me as the lawyer managing the property but he did not abide by the simple instruction.

“We have been in court since 2020 on this matter and we have repeatedly served the company and its lawyers; they only appeared once and no more. After waiting and being patient for many years, the court issued a Warrant for Possession of Premises by the original owner.”

Reacting, the counsel to Aqua Rapha Investment company Ltd, Barr. Fidelis Okeke, said that the eviction was unfair, adding: “This is unlawful execution”.

According to Okeke, the company is up to date with its rent payment. We have paid everything.

“I will go back to my chamber and study everything concerning this embarrassing execution and I will assure you it will not stand. By Monday, I will be in court to challenge this.

“The company will surely seek redress in court and claim huge damages for this insult and reputation damage,” he said.

In continuation of the bid by Governor Peter Mbah Administration to revive and convert Enugu State’s dormant assets to productive assets, the government has signed a N100bn deal with Pragmatic Palms Limited, a subsidiary of Diamond Stripes Limited, to resuscitate the moribund Enugu State United Palm Products Limited, UPPL.

The partnership will see Pragmatic Palms transform UPPL, one of the agricultural and agro-industrialisation initiatives of the late premier of the defunct Eastern Region, Dr. M. I. Okpara, which had laid fallow for many years.

Speaking during the signing of agreement at Government House Enugu, Governor Peter Mbah said the move was in line with his administration’s determination to grow the state’s economy exponentially from $4.4 billion to $30 billion, assuring the investors that his government would play its own part.

“This is a moment we must all be very proud of because it represents a major leap in our quest towards the revival of our dormant assets in line with our vision and the promises we made to our people.

“This investment outlay of over N100bn is very significant because we also see agriculture beyond food security. We see agriculture as business.

“I want to assure you that the government you are dealing with is business-facing, and given my background as an entrepreneur, we understand what it means to have the ease of doing business. So, we are going to ensure that this is going to be an experience that you will use as a reference point. We will be very responsive, and we are going to make sure that this partnership works for the benefit of the company and also that of Enugu State. So, what we are doing here today will mark the beginning of great things ahead,” Mbah stated.

Fielding questions from newsmen, the Enugu State Commissioner for Trade, Investment and Industry, Adaora Chukwu, described the deal as a milestone, listing its many socio-economic benefits to the state.

“Today, we witnessed a remarkable milestone. Recall that before His Excellency came on board, one of the first promises he had made to the people of Enugu State was to revive our non-operational assets and United Palm Products Ltd is one significant asset that has been dormant for years. And what we did today was the partial handover and the contract signing of UPPL to a company called Pragmatic Palm Ltd, which is a subsidiary of Diamond Stripes Ltd.

“The economic significance of what we did today is huge: The number of jobs it will create, the multiplier effects in terms of increasing production in the oil palm industry. You know that oil palm is an export commodity. We are not talking about the forex earnings into the state and also the building of capacity in-house, technology transfer, as well as skills and knowledge transfer to the people of Enugu State,” she said.

Also speaking, the Managing Director/CEO of Pragmatic Palms, George Nwangwu, said that palm products were in high demand, noting that United Palm Products Limited was capable of kick-starting the economic transformation of Enugu State.

“We have to realise that agriculture is a business. We are going to bring in a lot of equipment, and we are going to process the palm. Not just the palm, the palm kernel is an export commodity. If you go back and look at the biggest import over the years, palm is actually number five on the list. So, it is a significant product, and we tend to make sure we optimise its potentials here.

“The idea is to kick-start the economic transformation of the state. For instance, if we produce enough, people will come and set up their soap factories and then employ more people. It has a multiplier effect.

“Also, just to give you an example, to get the one at Oji River running, you are talking about close to 500 people because we need people to weed, to operate the plants and process it. So, you are also creating direct employment. If you put all these together, you can see that it runs into thousands of jobs,” he explained.

A Federal High Court in Abuja has insisted that its order made on April 17, for the arrest and production of ex-governor of Kogi state, Yahaya Bello still subsists.

Justice Emeka Nwite, in a ruling on Friday, May 10, held that Bello’s continued refusal to attend court and his frustration with the efforts of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to execute the arrest warrant were disrespectful of the court.

Justice Nwite held that the court would not entertain the applications filed by Bello unless he appeared in court and pleaded to a 19-count money laundering charge brought against him by the EFCC.

The judge also rejected the request by Bello’s lawyer, Abdulwahab Muhammed (SAN) that further proceedings in the case be stayed pending the determination of the appeal by the EFCC in relation to a contempt case before a High Court of Kogi state, sitting in Lokoja.

Details later…