Is This A Sign Of Things To Come For Igbo Investment Outside Igboland?

Igbo Traders Protest Sale Of Trade Fair 
 
By Tokunbo Olajide

Business owners at the Lagos International Trade Fair Complex, Badagry Expressway, have restated their opposition to the proposed privatization of the facility.

The Bureau of Public Enterprises had under former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, given concession to a private firm, Aulic Nigeria Limited to manage the complex.

The official handing over of the place was to have been done in July this year, but government backpedaled after the traders protested and obtained an injunction restraining it.

The Auto Spare Parts & Machinery Dealers Association (ASPAMDA), Tuesday, in Lagos vowed to resist the privatization.

The traders, mainly Igbos, who built a big plaza in the complex, explained that they currently own the property on lease holding; therefore it was illegal for government to want to privatize it.

President of ASPAMDA, Chief Ernest Ohanazoeze, said the place was being financed by them on owner-occupier basis, adding that the federal government gave approval for them to develop the place and occupy it for a 50-year lease period.

“The lease hold we have on this place was signed in 1994, and it is to be renewed for another 49 years; so check 1994 to now (2007), it’s not even up to half of the lease period.

“So I don’t see any reason why somebody will come and tell me that he would manage my property more than I that invested in that property, he said”

Before constructing the ASPAMDA plaza, which is just one of many other buildings in the trade fair complex, Ohanazoeze said government gave them the go ahead, adding that they are not in any way indebted to government over the lease agreement.

“Please I want you to ask the government if this place is being financed by them. You cannot privatize private interest to private interest.

“This is a private interest and you want to give it to another private interest I think it is unfair and illegal,” the president maintained.

Members of the House of Representatives recently visited the trade fair complex to wade into the controversy arising from the proposed sale of the place, and evaluate the complaint of the stakeholders.

The Minister of Commerce and Industry, Engr. Charles Ugwu, also visited the place last week to see things for himself, and said government would look into their grievances.

The traders have, however, vowed to ensure that justice is done in their matter.

“We have taken the right channel of going to court to seek redress; and we believe in the rule of law, which the current president has been preaching, to get justice. We do not intend to resort to violence or any other crude means,” Ohanazoeze said.
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