There was outrage at a wood processing factory, Njoku and Sons Wood Industry limited ,located on Aba road in Owerri, as the Imo government demolished the company despite a court order.
As early as 7am on Tuesday equipment belonging to the state government and its Agents arrived the company which houses many structures and brought them to rubbles.
When our correspondent visited the company,its workers were seen parking the company belongings as the destruction equipment and bulldozers rammed on the structures.
The managing Director of the company, Allwell Njoku,told newsmen that there was no formal notice to the company by the state government concerning the demolition.
He said that despite a court order ,the state government went ahead to demolish the factory.
Njoku said “it is very unfortunate that government officials today moved in to destroy our factory .this is a company that was established in 1956 that has 400 to 500 direct and indirect employees .
We have the certificate of occupancy and every other document required by law ,yet the state government insisted that it wants to take over the land.
From this destruction, the company has lost over 70m because we were not informed about the destruction. Every company equipment and product were not removed. We are struggling to remove the few we can as the demolition went on”.
An official of the state ministry of works who does not want his name in print told our correspondent that there was no court order restraining the state government from demolishing the factory.
He informed that the company was built against the Owerri master plan, even as he said that the government had issued two notices to the company about relocation which it said the coy ignored.
-FRONTLINE EXPRESS-
