Imo state government has described as distasteful and cheap blackmail, the claim by Innoson Motors that the state is owing the company the sum of N2.5 billion being cost of the vehicles it supplied some months ago.
In a press release by the chief press secretary to the governor, Oguwike Nwachukwu, government insisted that the company’s claim was half truth intended to impugn on the integrity of the government for ulterior motives.
Reacting to a threat on lawsuit to recover the over N2.5b debt the commissioner for Information and Strategy, Declan Emelumba, deplored the manner Innoson Motors was going about the recovery of the so-called debt.
He said: “The truth is that the government bought vehicles worth over N5 billion from Innoson Motors and has so far paid them N3.5billion. But contrary to the claim of Innoson Motors, the said N2.5billion is actually the balance due from the original value of the purchase, regretting that Innoson Motors, for reasons best known to them, decided to hide this fact from the public.”
Emelumba insisted that the total value of the vehicles supplied was in excess of N5b and that the government had been servicing the debt since then, adding that the management of Innoson Motors was actually the one that breached the contractual agreement with the state government regarding the sale and maintenance of the vehicles.
He stated that, “There is a clause in the purchase agreement stipulating the siting of a maintenance workshop in Owerri and a mobile workshop as well, by Innoson Motors, for the maintenance of the vehicles. In spite of the fact that the company breached this agreement, the state government has been servicing the debt and still maintaining the vehicles and more than 70 per cent of the vehicles have already broken down.”
The commissioner frowned at the threat by the company and resort to media trial of the government, saying they were done in bad faith.
“It appears the company is out to rubbish the integrity of the government, otherwise it would not have twisted the facts of the case and published same concerning this honest business transaction, even when it failed to show the public the terms of the contract and the clauses the government breached therein. The whole thing smacks of mischief and bad faith,” he said.
