Tension is brewing at the popular Auto Spare Parts and Machineries Dealers Association (ASPANDA) Market, International Trade Fair, Lagos, as it’s leader, Mr. Daniel Oforkansi, was allegedly arrested by the Police.
The traders are, however, protesting what they described as the abduction of their president by the police.
Oforkansi was picked by the police following two petitions written to them by a group of traders in the market who alleged that the president and his executives embezzled some amounts of money meant for the electricity bill, highhandedness, falsification of the constitution and intention to perpetuate themselves as life executives of the market.
The second petition was written by Anthony Anumalu, who alleged that Oforkansi and his executives sized his container loaded with over N247million worth of goods.
But in a swift reaction, Oforkansi has debunked the allegations, describing them as malicious and false.
He also alleged that he was abducted by policemen on the way to a restaurant.
Giving a graphic account on how he was allegedly abducted by the police, Oforkansi said the law enforcement agents who should have followed due process by inviting him rather than abducted him as kidnappers.
He said: ” On a fateful day, I went to eat without my police escorts because I move freely as I am loved by 95 percent of the traders. I am loved because of the good jobs I am doing in the market. As I was driving, I was accosted by some policemen who flagged my vehicle down. I stopped, because , I have no skeleton in my cupboard. I cannot run because of the police as I am not a thief. As I stopped, the senior officer among them asked me to open the door which I did and he jumped inside the car, grabbed my phone and switched it off. I asked what the matter was and he said I was under arrest. I asked what my offense was and he said there were two petitions against me.
” The police officer ordered me to drive to Area E Police Command in FESTAC Town, but I requested for my phone to contact my people that I was with the police, but the police officer said he won’t give me my phone. It was at that point that I started suspecting that I may be in the hands of kidnappers in police uniform. I requested to know whether they booked at the Trade Fair police Station inside that market which was also a stone throw to where the drama was going on, but the policemen got angry. It was the people who saw how I was being abducted that contacted the market chief security officer (CSO), who contacted Trades Fair police divisional police officer who confirmed that the policemen did not book in the station.
Well, I was moved to Area E Command from where they took me to Abuja.” The questions are: why should I be abducted for mere petitions; why should the police not follow due process and why should they forcefully take my phone without allowing me to contact my people? I want the police high command to say if I am too small to be invited. If the police had respectfully invited me, I would have honored their invitation rather than the way I was treated like a common criminal. I was the one who calmed my people down,otherwise, something else would have happened.
” Well, the issue of the porous allegations, I want to respond by saying that those who wrote the petitions are enemies of progress. They want to cause problems in the market, but they have failed woefully because my members are wiser. They alleged that I stole some money meant for the electricity bills. We have a task force that deals with electricity, the people responsible for electricity pay with bank draft and not with cash. I am not involved in anything concerning electricity. Second, they talked of perpetrating myself as a lifetime president of the market association, this is false as we have amended the constitution for a four-year single tenure, and my tenure is expiring next year.
After my tenure, I am not eligible to contest in any election, so the allegation of making myself a life president is myopic and false. Well, for Anthony Anumalu, who claimed that I seized his container, he lies. He kept his container in a dangerous spot that was causing serious obstructions in the market. The Taskforce wrote several letters of appeals, requesting that he should move it to a safer place and he bluntly refused to do the needful. It was a task force that moved it to a safer place and the container is under lock and key. .Besides, he took us to the Court and we also file a suit against him in another Court.
We have two pending cases in the court, so why should the police act on a matter that has not been decided by a competent Court?. I still want to let you know that those who petitioned me do not have shops in the market.
” I am therefore calling on the Inspector-General of police Mr. Mohammed Adamu, to order file scale investigate on the allegations leveled against me and also to investigate the conduct of his men who abducted me, because, I was abducted and treated like a common criminal for frivolous petitions. He should tap his men on the back if they really followed due process, but if they did not follow due diligence, he should punish them as well.
” I also want to appeal to traders to be calm and allow the police high command to do due diligence. They should not create unnecessary tension as all the past presidents of the association, the board of trustees and 95 percent of the traders are aware of what the police did and are solidly behind me “.
In the first petition written by a legal practitioner, Ojay Akinwale for Chukudi Megwa, the petitioner, alleged that:” Oforkansi and his executives conspired together to convert to their personal use of N442,742,499.13, meant for the electricity bill. They fraudulently increased electricity bills charged on the shops and offices, thereby stealing our money by conversion. We urged the IGP to use his good office to investigate the allegation”.
A senior police officer told Cornerstones News that Oforkansi was invited under the directives of the IGP
