INNOSON lied, we'd since returned vehicles to them- Petronella

Tony Okafor, Awka



Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Petronella Nigeria Ltd, Prince Charles Tabansi has described the claims by Innoson Motors Manufacturing,(IVM) that it did not breach the term of contract in the supply of 20 Units of Granite Diesel Pick-Ups as mere display of dishonest and self deceit.

He said out of the 20 vehicles ordered, IVM only supplied eight that did not meet the required specifications.

Tabansi noted that his company, Petrollena Nig. Ltd, an oil servicing company, returned the eight faulty vehicles to Innoson motors facility in Port Harcourt, Rivers state and the branch manager acknowledged the receipt.

But the Head, Corporate Communications of IVM, Mr. Cornell Osigwe in a reply said IVM met the standard and basic specifications demanded by Petronella Nig. Ltd.

Osigwe also said that Petronella took delivery of the eight vehicles in good state.

According to him, "Up till this day, these vehicles are still in possession, custody of Petronella and it has refused to return them to us as said above."

Addressing journalists on Monday in Awka, Anambra state, Tabansi said he expected Innoson to talk about the refund of N415m for the 12 vehicles which IVM didn't supply, adding that Innoson issued them with fake certification of the products.

Tabansi said, " Innoson is pretty sure that the vehicles are at his office in Port Harcourt. Innoson is being dishonest, just like he gave us fake documentation and he claimed that he gave us certification. I mean, he should come clean with his claims.

" We asked him the name of the company that gave him the certification so that we can verify from the company, up till today, he has not given us the name of the company."

Tabansi said many prominent people had intervened on this matter, "After we had gone to court, two prominent men, one from Ozubulu who is my close friend and another one from Nnewi, who is Innoson's close ally, go came together and said they don't want all these problems among Igbo brothers, they begged me to forget the accrued interest and if he pays me my money that I should leave.

" After giving it a thought within a week, I agreed that I will forgo everything if the money is paid in bulk within the next few weeks, mind you, I have been paying interest of the money he collected up till now but I will forget it if he pays me all the money at once.

" These people went back to him and told him what we resolved which he agreed but said his lawyer was in London, that we should wait till he returns back to Nigeria.

" He(Innocent Chukwuma) doubted how would he be sure that I won't go to court but to reassure him, I obliged to sign undertaking that could be drafted by his lawyer that this would be the final settlement and I would not go to court while both of us would sign. Actually, this should have ended the whole thing.

" He started dilly dallying, saying that we should wait for over two weeks. Mind you, this my transaction was done one on one with Chief Innocent Chukwuma himself. These two prominent people had the discussion with me and Innoson over this matter in April year 2021.

" We returned his vehicles to Port Harcourt office on December 1,2021 and he knew that. Even in our court matter, he never said that we are still in custody of his vehicles. He earlier told us that we should keep the vehicles in our office and when their drivers are ready, they would come and collect them.

"We waited for one week, nobody came for the vehicles. He even requested for our account details but he didn't pay back the money for the 12 vehicles that were not supplied.

Buy ivm at your own risk

Some urchins ho still com blame Asiwaju for this