-Blame Igwe, Akaraonye, Isiguzo For Entrenched Culture Of Stealing Amongst them-Imo NUJ
Barely 5 months Justice Ononaeze Madu of Imo State High Court delivered a landslide judgement invalidating the criminal sale of the Port Harcourt Road Secretariat of Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, the Chairman of Imo State Correspondent Chapel, Comrade Chinonso Alozie was over the weekend arrested and detained like a common criminal for criminally selling a vehicle donated to the Union by the Imo State Government,recently.
Alozie, who was arrested at a wedding venue in Owerri, was taken to Tiger Base Unit, from where he was transferred to the Criminal Investigation Bureau(CIB).
According to a police source who pleaded anonymity, Alozie conspired with some of his members to sell the said bus that was recently donated to the Union to ease transportation for members without recourse to the government and the majority of his members.
The vehicle was said to have been sold at a giveaway price of #30 million as against the #70 million market price. The money from the fraudulent sale of the Bus was shared among some members who knew of the transaction. Those who didn’t attend the meeting on that day when Alozie, sensing that his action had become an open secret, decided to part with some money from the sale.
A member of the Correspondent Chapel who also spoke on condition of anonymity said they were given #21,000 each from the #30Milion. When we asked what happened to the rest of the money, he said that the Commissioner of Information, Mr Declan Emelumba, has a share in the money, hence the reason for the little he brought out to share.
It was later confirmed that even the commissioner didn’t endorse the sale of the vehicle when Alozie muted the idea to him as such was unaware of the sale.
“The commissioner before Alozie’s arrest had instructed him to return the vehicle so the Government could brand it, but he refused, fueling speculation that he may have sold the bus”, the source stated.
Reacting to the development, the Imo state Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Comrade Precious Nwadike, said NUJ is not surprised by the development. He said the Trio of Innocent Igwe, Chris Akaraonye and Chris Isiguzo entrenched a culture of stealing Union’s property before they left the saddle.
Nwadike further stated that, under his tenure as Chairman of NUJ, the Union fought so hard to recover the NUJ secretariat at Port Harcourt Road after spending a huge sum of money on litigation.”At first, when we raised alarm over their criminal tendencies, those at the corridors of power, never took us seriously. The Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Declan Emelumba preferred to be working with this group of Crooks, whereby emboldening them to do more”.
Nwadike recalled how Chinonso Alozie, accompanied by Ifeanyi Nwagwuma, invaded the PH road secretariat last year to loot properties of the Union in the guise of ejecting occupants of the Secretariat, but were stopped by our members. Nwaguma was later arrested and taken to the police Station. If not for the intervention of some of us, the case would have been different”.
