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The factory of Legacy Paints Limited in Emene, Enugu State was in the early hours of Sunday January 24, 2021 razed to the ground by thugs suspected to have been hired by someone who is laying claim to the land on which the factory was built.
According to the management of the company, armed thugs numbering over 40, invaded the factory in the company of two uniformed men and two bulldozers.
Investments worth hundreds of millions were destroyed during the mayhem. Among the vandalised items were perimeter fence, finished products, raw materials, machines and the production building after overpowering the security men.
As at the time of filing this report, the whereabouts of the company’s security personnel who were taken away by the thugs remained unknown.
A director of the company, located at Plot M4, Cattle Lairage, Emene, Obasi Enekwa decried the wanton destruction of the property of the company despite that the land was lawfully acquired from the Enugu State government.
He wondered why anybody could resort to such destructive self-help in view of the trying time the economy is passing through, stressing that the livelihood of over 200 people mostly from Enugu state who depend on the company for their well-being has been brought to an abrupt end.
A visibly pained Enekwa lamented: “As I speak, we don’t know where the thugs are keeping our security personnel. Their families are in agony. I am shocked that anybody no matter how highly connected they are in Abuja can take the laws into their hands to destroy investments, threaten lives, destroy livelihoods and deprive government of Enugu State tax revenues.”
Community leaders, workers, distributors and other well meaning Nigerians who thronged the site of the destruction on Sunday morning decried the audacious act.
Chief Obiora Okolie, a prominent community leader who visited the site of the destruction, condemned the act. He called on the state government and the Inspector General of Police to urgently institute a panel to investigate the immediate and remote causes of what he described as “the dastard and barbaric mayhem” and bring the perpetrators to book. He further wondered how a destruction of this large scale can happen without the intervention of the security agencies.
Enekwa explained that the land was lawfully acquired by Legacy Paints Limited from the Enugu State government which is being challenged by one Mrs. Uju Ohanenye who is alleged to be behind the destruction of the company in a bid to possess the land.
