By Our Correspondent
The inhabitants of Mona School, off Shell Road, Okirighwre Sapele have petitioned the Assistant Inspector General of Police Zone 5, Benin City, Delta State Police Command, Police Headquarters, Asaba, Delta State, including the Divisional Police Headquarters, Sapele over the dubious and fraudulent practices of few persons in the area who engaged themselves on illegal collection of money from new land lords for electricity installation.
In a petition letter dated January 5, 2016, titled “Fraudulent and Dubious Disposition by Mr. Big Joe, Mrs. Akpomudiare, Mr. Philip Ikede and Mr. Idjerhe Dickson, all of Mona School, off Shell Road, Okirighwre, Sapele under the guise of landlords capable of igniting unrest in this volatile environment of ours” from the chambers of Barrister J. Ederogun Etchie & Co., a Sapele based legal practitioner, states that these persons are of the habit of collecting illegal money from new landlords without which they would never be linked to power source.
In a 6 paragraph petition letter, the lawyer explained that their clients, landlords, landladies and inhabitants of the environs of Mona School, off Shell Road, Okirighwre, Sapele, viz Mr. Benson Efeotor, Mr. Ochuko Okosusu, Mr. Chanai Dennis, Mrs. Aghwana Roseline, Christiana Omagaga, Gabaga Ajayi, Uyi Aigbe, Sam William, Arthur Omoregie, Federal Akpotor, Enaikirerhie Ediri, Etsitso Bright, Gabriel Emoyel, Ochuko Fred Ojumah, Chukwudi Akpometa Bright and many others have suffered untold hardship from the above persons under a severe condition.
They added that sometime in 2014 due to epileptic power supply, the occupants and inhabitants of the environs of Mona School was thrown into total darkness which prompted Hon. Joyce Overah a then member representing Sapele, Uvwie and Okpe Local Government in the Federal House of Representative, as part of his constituency project, made available a transformer to the occupants and inhabitants of Mona School, off Shell Road, Okirighwre, Sapele for the use and benefit of all which was complemented by stakeholders as collection of token amount of money that was made which made the installation and functioning possible.
Barrister Etchie added that Mr. Big Joe and Cohorts since 2015, have been defrauding, frustrating and depriving would-be occupants/inhabitants of the use and benefits of the transformer under the guise of landlords, stressing that this dubious behaviour by Mr. Big Joe and his cohorts was heightened a fortnight ago when the sum of 98,000.00 (ninety – eight thousand naira) was collected from Mrs. Roseline Aghwana without any justification as she was referred by Mr. Big Joe and his cohorts to Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) officials who demanded the sum of N91,000.00 to connect her light.
He added that bearing in mind that the law frowns at the use of self-help in dealing or resolving issue of this nature, the landlords, landladies and inhabitants of Mona School environs met with Chief Eritobor (Chairman Okirighwre Community) and the Youths of the Community and in one accord they condemned in strong terms the excesses of Mr. Big Joe and Cohorts in igniting unrest in this volatile environment of theirs, while Chief Eritobor denied knowledge of the activities of those persons mentioned above.
The people therefore call on the law enforcement agencies to use their good offices to investigate and curtail the excesses of Mr. Joe and cohorts by stopping them from further collection of illegal money and as well stopping them from parading themselves as coordinator of the area as well as stopping them from illegal disconnection of light in the area.
At the BEDC Office in Sapele where the protesting landlords and inhabitants visited, the senior distribution manager, Engr. Glory Ikponmwonsa Jegede, denied knowledge of the legal collection of any amount of money from any landlord, explaining that no one give money to them before connecting “your house to electricity, rather, people are only asked to buy what is required to take the line to their houses and if they are standard ones, immediately they approved as the person get connected”.
The Mess Engineer, District Headquarters, BEDC Sapele, Engineer Monday Anitoh added that they are already investigating the allegation that some landlords are using BEDC staff for their illegal activities as they BEDC never send their men for such purposes. He explained that the men these dubious persons uses for their evil acts are either retired staff or contract staff, who are not staff of BEDC establishment.
