Emerah, New Auto Spare Parts Market BoT Chair Sues Caretaker Committee, Claims N500m Damages

By Chuks Eke*

Chief Mike Emerah, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, BoT of the New Auto Spare Parts Market, Nkpor in Idemil North Local Government Area of Anambra State, near the commercial city of Onitsha, has taken Chief Stephen Obiora Ofoleh, chairman of the market caretaker committee, and other committee members to the Federal High Court in Awka.

The plaintiff, Chief Emerah, is suing the defendants jointly and severally for N500 million in exemplary and aggravated damages for removing him from the market’s Board of Trustees, or BoT. Chief Stephen Obiora Ofoleh, Chairman of the market caretaker committee, is the first defendant.

The second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth defendants are Josephat Ekwedike, Uchenna Nwankwo, Amaechi Ezeh, Obiajulu Udeh, Paulinus Okwuchukwu, Edwin Ibeabuchi, Uchenna Ugbala, Kenraph Chiemezie, Gilbert Anigbogu, and Mrs. Eucheria Ezeome.

The plaintiff also joined Governor Chukwuma Soludo as the 11th defendant for authorising his Special Adviser on Parks and Markers, SPAD, and Chief Evarist Uba, the 12th defendant, to illegally appoint the 1st to 10th defendants as members of the market caretaker committee sometime in February this year, in violation of the market’s Constitution, which states that market leadership must be elected rather than appointed.

The plaintiff also joined the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, Abuja, as the 13th defendant in the suit for allowing the 1st to 10th defendants to manipulate the CAC record, remove him as a member of the BoT, and replace him with themselves as members.

The second, third, fourth, and fifth defendants, Ekwedike, Nwankwo, Ezeh, and Udeh, are the Vice Chairman, Secretary, Assistant Secretary, and Financial Secretary of the New Auto Spare Parts Market, Nkpor, respectively, while the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth defendants, Okwuchukwu, Ibeabuchi, Ugbala, Chieme, Anigbogu, and Ezeome, are the Treasurer, PRO, Provost, Circular Bearer, Welfare Officer, and member of the market caretaker committee, respectively.

In a pre-action notice filed at the Federal High Court Registry in Awka and served on all the defendants, the plaintiff, Chief Emerah, through his legal counsel, Chief Ikenna Egbuna, SAN, is also seeking a declaration of the court that the appointment of the first defendant and his privies by the 12th defendant, Uba, an agent of the 11th defendant, Governor Soludo, as members of the market’s caretaker committee is unlawful and contrary to the mar

In the pre-action notice No. FHC/AWK/CS/191/2024, the plaintiff noted that he decided to institute the suit on his discovery that he had been unlawfully removed from the CAC record as a member of the trustees of the market by the market committee, which he described as an illegal one based on the constitution of the market.

He is also seeking a declaration from the court that his removal from the CAC record as a BoT member is unlawful and unconstitutional.

He contended that it is ironic that the same people whose appeal against the state government’s approval to build shops on top of existing shops in the market is currently pending before the Court of Appeal sitting in Awka in Appeal No. CA/AW/155/2022 have been appointed as the market’s caretaker committee.

He further contended that the refusal of the incumbent illegally appointed caretaker committee to allow the former elected executive members of the market, then led by Chief Elisius Ozokwere, to construct the additional shops on top of the existing ones, as approved by the state government by going to court, which is yet to be determined by the Court of Appeal, has denied the state government a huge amount of revenue, and yet the government knowingly or unknowingly

He claimed that because the committee was illegally appointed by the state government, its members went to the CAC in Abuja and criminally removed him from the market’s board of directors.

He requested a court order directing the 13th defendant, CAC, to reverse its record and reinstate him as a member of the market’s BoT, while the first to tenth defendants pay him N500 million in exemplary and aggravated damages.