Aloysius Attah, Onitsha
The Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) has declared its intention to sell the popular Onitsha Electronics Market (Electromart) to a private investor in order to recover an unserviceable bank loan of N300,000,000 obtained by some past executives of the market while constructing the market.
The Onitsha Electromart, located opposite Premier Breweries along the Onitsha-Asaba expressway, before Bridgehead, has been embroiled in several cases of leadership crisis and accountability among both serving executives and past leaders.
Recently, some Trustees of the market which included Chuks Onyeizugbe, Charles Okoye, Obinna Igwemadu, Fredrick Okafor, Asaa Ikechukwu, Emeka Okafor and Lucky Mobi, who are all stall owners in the market, accused the incumbent president of the market, Izuchukwu Okoye of outright refusal to render any account to the association since assumption of office. But Okoye denied their allegations when contacted.
They also raised the alarm that Electronics Market is in danger of being sold off by ‘AMCON’ because some characters used the market to take a loan from a bank to the tune of three hundred million naira (N300,000,000) without resort to traders who own market stalls.
In a letter from AMCON obtained by Daily Sun addressed to the Managing Director, Silverline Industries Limited, Abuja, signed by the AMCON Head Receivership Enforcement, Okoronkwo Onwukwe and the Group Head, Enforcement, Joshua Ikioda while responding to a request for authority to act as a mandate from the sale of Electronics Market, Industrial Layout, Anambra State, confirmed that AMCON was willing to sell the Electronics Market provided that the offer is within its reserve price.
Palpable tension has enveloped the market following the latest development even as the Trustee have implored Governor Willie Obiano to intervene and save the situation by setting up a quiet investigation into the goings-on in the market and save the traders the trauma of losing their shops.