Ohanaeze Ndigbo condemns trial of Innoson’s Chairman

The Ohanaeze Ndigbo has flayed the trial of the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Innosons Group, Chief Innocent Chukwuma over alleged criminal offences in a civil matter between him and a commercial bank in the country, saying that Ndigbo would not tolerate poor treatment of their people in a bid to give their competitors some edge over them.


It, however, threatened to review the patronage of Ndigbo people to the alleged offending bank or any economic establishment trying to hound Chief Chukwuma.

This was contained in a statement signed by the Special Assistant to the President General of Ohanaeze Worldwide, Chief Emeka Attamah, in Enugu yesterday.

The Ohanaeze’s statement read, “The attention of Ohanaeze Ndigbo has been drawn to a court action instituted against the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Innoson Nigeria Limited, Chief Innocent Chukwuma in which he is being charged, ostensibly, for obtaining Customs documents through fraudulent means.

“Cognizant of the fact that the matter is in court and without any pretense to the veracity of the case or otherwise, Ohanaeze Ndigbo views the current travails of Chief Chukwuma as yet another attempt at hounding another son of Igbo land who, out of personal enterprise and dint of hard work, has helped in shaping the economic and industrial fortunes of Nigeria.

“The apex Igbo organization frowns at this recent attempt to obfuscate the clear court victory won by Innoson’s Group in a crucial suit against a leading bank in the country.

“This release views the current twist in the whole affair as a deliberate attempt to put Chief Chukwuma on the defensive in a matter that clearly vindicates him and confers a lot of financial advantage on him and taint his reputation by introducing a criminal angle to an already settled civil proceedings.

“Ohanaeze is carefully studying this discriminatory treatment of his adversaries by the law enforcement agents with a view to reviewing the patronage of our people to any economic establishment found to be associated in this new criminal assault of Chief Innocent Chukwuma.

“We will no longer be prepared to do business with any organization that denigrates the best of our people.”