By Yakubu Busari, Jos
The federal government has been urged to as a matter of urgency wade into the lingering tussle of ownership of Vee Oil resource of Nigeria Limited as a way of restoring confidence on investors in the Country.
The call was made by some Concern Staff represented by the Administrative and Personnel Manager. Mallam Alhassan Mikail who spoke to Press men in Jos, noting that such measure became necessary following the squabble that ensued after the original owner entrusted company to one Mr. Mehta who manage the company for the period of four years without any meaningful production despite the waste of resources.
“So we are appealing to President Muhammadu Buhari and Kano State Government to fully investigate the irregularities and the arbitrary abuse of office by the immigration on the illegal closure of the factory which has forced over 300 Nigerians jobless.’
He disclosed that the present owner of the company took over the factory unaudited from Mr. Mehta and completed the plant where he commences production and start paying tax to Nigerian government before he was forcefully repatriated by the immigration, even when the suit was pending at the federal High Court in Abuja.
“The memorandum of understanding (MOU) on this deal was given to the Kano state command of the Nigerian Immigration and yet the comptroller of immigration repatriated the innocent Indian simply because one ex-immigration officer was friendly to the comptroller and Mr. Mahta who collaborated to ensure the factory is close and the expatriate repatriated”, he alleged.
According to him,” the four expatriates were forcefully kept in incommunicado for forty five days between office and their homes before they were repatriated out of the country while their case at the court was yet to be determined”.
He alleged that the tussle over the ownership of the company began after M r. Mehta unilaterally went to the Cooperate Affairs Commission where he in illegally transferred the shares of the company to himself and his wife as mentioned in the suit filled at the federal high court.
When the case came up for hearing on the 22nd June, 2015, the appellant (Mr. Mehta) and his Lawyers including his cohort could not appear in the court there by forcing the case to be adjourned to the 7th July 2015.
He therefore wondered as to when the immigration comptroller assume the responsibility if becoming superior to a legal court in the Country sequel to his open disregard to the advice given by the legal department that deportation should not be affected before the determination of the suit.
The confiscation of the passports of the Indian investors by the Nigerian immigration in Kano at the time the case was before a court, he said,” showed the level of Complexity exhibited by the Command and a total disregards to the Constituted Authority”.
According to him, the entire marketers in the Northern parts of the Country depended greatly on the services of the Company because they are adjudged as the best even by the Standard Organization of Nigeria
