By Evelyn Uman

Business men and women occupying suit 1, of the Ogun State Property and Investment Corporation , OPIC Plaza, located  at  Mobolaji Bank Anthony way, Ikeja are daily confronted with a foul odour emanating from one of the suites ( 102).

A visit to the plaza, Tuesday , revealed that the suite , used as a restaurant , was forcefully locked up by some officials of OPIC , led by one  Alhaja, who came from their Abeokuta, Ogun state office on February 15, 2017.

Mrs Nkworji

Trouble, as gathered, started for owner of the restaurant, Mrs Franca Nkworji, after she received a letter from management of the plaza , six days before its invasion, to pack out of the suite  within three days.

In an interview with  Crime Guard,  the distraught occupant, alleged that she was beaten up by some thugs who were brought to effect the forceful ejection, an action she said landed her in the hospital.

Efforts to get justice over the gross assault on her, she said, met brick wall  following what she alleged as sinister moves by security agents to sweep the case under the carpet.

She, therefore, called on the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, Fatai Owoseni, to wade into the matter with a view to putting paid to the undue harassment and intimidation meted on her, by bringing the culprits to book.

In a petition to Owoseni, Nkworji’s lawyer, George Oguntade, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, stated that Nkworji, a sitting tenant at the plaza, had a suite for educational consultancy services, until 2016 when she rented another, using it as a restaurant. Accordingly, he said, payment of N1.3m was made, as well as renovation work befitting a restaurant.

Trouble

“The first sign  of trouble,  he said ,reared its head following  a directive by management of the plaza that the gas cylinders used by Nkworji, should be removed. But observation revealed that other restaurants in the plaza were using same gas cylinders unmolested.

Matters, he continued,“ came to a head on the 15 of February 2017, when one of the managers of the plaza, who was angry that our client refused her offer of partnership in the restaurant business, made it a mission to frustrate her and ensure that the business fails and our clients ejected from the plaza.

“The Alhaja and some other officials of OPIC invaded our client’s suite and requested that she vacate same immediately. When our client refused to do so, claiming that she was a bona fide tenant, the Alhaja instructed a heavily built thug that  she takes  around to forcefully throw our client out of the premises. In the course of this, our client was badly beaten up, brutalised  publicly humiliated and embarrassed .

“Our client had to seek medical attention as a result of the violent assault on her.”

 Police action

Crime Guard gathered that a complaint was lodged at the Area F command, Ikeja , which led to the arrest of the suspected thugs alleged to have manhandled Nkworji. During interrogation, a video clip recorded on  ipad reportedly showed when the suspects were allegedly assaulting owner of the restaurant.

But a twist, according to her lawyer,  was introduced in the fight for justice following the release of suspects and alleged silence from the Police.

Continuing, Nkworji’s lawyer said : “To our client’s utter shock and amazement , all efforts to reach the DPO and indeed the IPO have proved abortive and no single charge has been filed against the culprit.  On her part, the Alhaja  boasted that nothing whatsoever can happen to her or her thugs because she works for a government agency.

“On a particular occasion the Police told our client that a charge had been filed against the culprits in court but upon further investigation, this turned out to be false.

“Accordingly, we humbly request that you intervene in this matter as a matter of urgency.”

 OPIC’s reaction

Contacted, Head, Legal Services for OPIC , Adeyinka Awopeju, described Nkworji’s claim of assault on her as false, explaining that suite 102 was locked because it was illegally occupied.

According to him, “ She is not a tenant in suite 102. She occupied it illegally. She did not pay for it. She has a suit in the plaza which is not suite 102.”

Continuing he said: “Besides, the place is an office space but she used it as a restaurant and even put industrial cylinders , that could burn down the place. If you take a closer look at the suite in question, you will discover that she blocked a particular place where she kept the industrial gas cylinders. That space she blocked is not supposed to be so. It is a place you could walk round.”

Asked why other tenants who also mounted industrial gas cylinders in their suites used as restaurants were not subject to same disciplinary measures, Awopeju simply replied, “when you have a house, you decide what you want the occupants to do. Nigeria today is not what it used to be . OPIC belongs to  Ogun state government , no  one can come to a place and force him or herself on government.”

The  case,  as gathered, has been charged to court.