The Senior Special Assistant to Governor Obi on Media and publicity, Mr. valentine Obienyem, while reacting to the call by Offodile for Obi to resign said that the man, going his utterances, was showing insipient signs of psychological encumbrances. He wondered why somebody would call on a person that has not done anything contrary to his oath of office to resign.
“If you have been reading the newspapers, you would notice that in the past two months, Offodile who is not known to have made any intellectual contributions in the newspapers, suddenly started to write regularly on Obi. This shows that somebody is calling the tune for him somewhere”, Obienyem said.
On the issue of Next International investing in SABmiller, Obienyem said that Obi resigned his directorship and membership of the Board of all the companies he has interest, which, according to him, does not mean that those companies should not do businesses again. “ Obi has shares in virtually all the companies in Nigeria such as Fidelity Bank, Enterprises Bank, Diamond Bank, Nestle, Charms , future view, among others. Should those companies stop businesses because of Obi’s shares,” he asked.
On the allegation that Obi revoked a land belonging to International Steel for SABmiller (Intafact), Obienyem said that the land where Intafact built their facility was a property they purchased from GCM at the whopping cost of N550 Million Naira and that the transaction was handled by a reputable Estate agent and Valuer, Okolo and Okolo based at Onitsha.
On the land belonging to International Steel, Obienyem said it was revoked alongside other land in the Estate for overriding public interest as contained in the Land use Act. Besides being allowed to that dilapidate because they were not put into use for the purposes of they were granted, Obienyem said that other organizations and companies that Government has interest in needed those land for projects that will contribute in building a better Anambra State.
Obienyem wondered why Offodile, who claims to have done a search at the Corporate Affairs Commission, did not found out that apart from next international that five other companies, including those owned by a Deltan and a lagosian have shares in the company.
“It is on record that Obi travelled many times to South Africa and London before he convinced SABmiller people to invest in Anambra among other considered and even preferred states. Thereafter the negotiation were done by the then Commissioners for Commerce, Lands and Finance and the entire transactions were above board and transparent.
Concluding, he said it was tragic for the actions of the likes of Offodile, when other Anambraians are celebrating the advent of Industrial Revolution in the State, which Obi is leading.
