By Onyekachi Eze
The newly appointed Management Committee Chairman of Imo State Transport Company, ITC, Chief Emeka Duru, may be in for a serious trouble, following the alleged conversion and rebranding of commercial vehicles belonging to a former Commissioner for Transport in Imo State, Prince Lasbery Okaforanyanwu.
There is fire on the mountain within the vicinity and the Management of the State owned transport company, as an Asaba Police division , Delta State has apprehended one of the bus drivers.
The unfortunate driver had been cooling off in the police cell since last weekend, following his arrest in far away Delta State, with a repainted vehicle said to be owned by Mass Transport Network, MTN limited.
It would be recalled that the recently sacked ITC Management Chairman, Chief Onyekachi Ibezim, before his exit had besieged the premises of Mass Transport Network along Ugwu Orji, in Owerri, and made away with some vehicles and property of MTN.
The vehicles carted away from the private company owned by Prince Lasbery Okaforanyanwu is said to be twenty-five in number.
In the process of getting justice, the Chairman of MTN, Okaforanyanwu filed a Law suit to that effect.
Trumpeta gathered that the Court in a judgment ordered ITC to return all the looted vehicles and other property of Mass Transport Network Limited, as well as never to enter into the property again.
Contrary to the Order, the new ITC boss, Chief Emeka Duru, Trumpeta Newspaper learnt, continued from where his predecessor stopped, and was alleged to have repainted all the vehicles to ITC colour, and changed all the plate numbers.
However, luck ran out of them last week when one of the drivers was nabbed in Asaba with one of the vehicles.
The original plate number of the high roof Toyota bus recovered was WER456ZS, but was changed to 14B-66IM by Chief Duru.
While the driver is reported to be kept in the cell since weekend, the bus is currently parked at the GRA Police Station, Asaba.
Reacting on the development, the Chairman of Mass Transport Network Limited, Prince Lasbery Okaforanyanwu said,
“God is always vindicating me. When I recently addressed the press, I told them of the ploy by the then ITC Chairman, which his successor toed same part;
“He converted about 25 of my vehicles which were forcefully taken away from me, even when the matter was still in court;
“Upon the fact that Court had told them to return my vehicles to me, he went ahead to criminally convert my vehicles, rebranded them, and changed the original plate numbers into ITC use”.
Prince Okaforanyanwu disclosed that if not by God’s intervention that played out through the Asaba policemen who caught the driver, all the media lies peddled by Emeka Duru that he didn’t repaint any vehicle belonging to Mass Transport Network could have seem true in the eyes of some persons.
The former Imo State Transport Commissioner opined, “He want to mess up with Imo State Government by changing the colour, brand and plate numbers. I know the Governor being a principled man cannot authorize this type of rubbish. He is a good man, I know he will not authorize this type of criminality”.
Prince Lasbery added, “God is vindicating me already. I have all the original plate numbers of the vehicles they took away from Mass Transport Network. Not respecting a matter in Court and its Order is a brazen Court contempt and slap on the Judiciary”.
He however reiterated his stand in seeking justice through any possible legal means, rather than taking laws into his hands.
