Eke Ukwu Owerri: Indigenes kick as IMSG defies court order on reconstruction

Owerri Indigenes have advised Imo State Government, to respect the interlocutory injunction, ordered by Justice K. A. Ojiako, in suit number HOW/380/2016, and stop further development and/or allocation of stores in Eke Ukwu Owerri Market.

Two Senior Advocates of Nigeria, SAN, representing Owerri Indigenes, K. C. O. Njemanze and N. A. Nnawuchi, who gave the advice yesterday, in a press statement, however, warned the public, especially those currently paying varying sums of  money  for the stores that “there is a positive, valid and subsisting  restraining order, made by a competent Court, touching and concerning the market.”

Going down memory lane, the lawyers said that: “The Defendants were duly served all the processes in this suit and are fully aware that this suit is pending in Court.

“In the highest display of executive lawlessness, Rochas Okorocha, then governor of Imo State, the other Defendants, their servants, and agents, aided by soldiers and police officers, brazenly disobeyed the said positive and unequivocal order of Imo State High Court and forcibly entered the market and destroyed same.”

Continuing, Njemanze and Nnawuchi recalled that on resumption of office, Governor Hope Uzodimma had a series of meetings with the Plaintiffs and their lawyers, aimed at amicably settling the dispute between the parties.

They said: “The terms of settlement agreed to by the parties, were signed by our Clients, but the Defendants have refused and/or failed to sign the terms of settlement to date.

“Instead of signing the terms of the settlement, the Defendants opted and have continued to disobey the said order of interlocutory injunction by forcibly entering into, building on, and carrying on developmental activities on the Eke Ukwu Owerri Market, the subject matter of the suit.

“Recently, the Defendants and their agents, have been making announcements in the media, inviting members of the public, to subscribe to  and pay for allocation of shops, and stalls in Eke Ukwu Owerri Market, despite the pendency of the suit and a subsisting and valid restraining order of the Imo State High Court.

“Members of the public are warned of the unpleasant and grave consequences of disobeying the Order of Court and buying lawsuit and not shops or stalls.” (Vanguard)