Even as the allegations management of Trumpeta, an Owerri based tabloid has raised about the intention of the suspected moves of the Imo state government against the newspaper, a worker of the Owerri Capital Development Authority, OCDA has come out to issue a threat against the operators.
The management of Trumpeta newspapers late Tuesday raised the alarm concerning the surprise invasion of the office premises by an a team of OCDA operatives numbering more than 20 accompanied by two policemen.
In a statement issued by the newspaper, a sinister plot suspected to be a grand design by the Imo State Government to subtly move against one of the Owerri based newspapers, Trumpeta, has been uncovered, forcing the operators to raise the alarm about the safety of their lives and those of workers.
On Tuesday, operatives of a government agency, named Owerri Capital Development Authority, OCDA, accompanied by armed policemen and fierce looking operatives, stormed the Item Street, Ikenegbu area of the Trumpeta office, in Owerri, the state capital.
According to eye witnesses account, the squad, comprising stern faced youths packed in an 16-seater Innoson made bus, inscribed OCDA, landed Item Street, Owerri, where Trumpeta is located to make inquires from residents the particular building housing the tabloid.
The team was led by two men who also came with Innoson SUV truck with Imo State Government plate number.
Initially, their vehicles had patrolled the street repeatedly ostensibly in search of the Trumpeta office.
When the building housing Trumpeta office was pointed to the OCDA men, the weird looking fellows in the bus accompanied by the armed policemen jumped out in a jiffy, acting in a movie-like manner surrendered the premises thereby fuelling fears among residents of the street of planned external aggression.
Residents within the Trumpeta office neighbourhood on sensing the approach of the OCDA men became frightened of their presence.
Remarkably, Trumpeta staffers who were in office and alarmed by the Gestapo manner of invasion adopted by the OCDA to the complex took had no option than to take cover for safety purposes.
Frustrated about the failure of their suspected misadventure in Trumpeta office since they couldn’t meet any staff, and apparently aware of the watching crowd who had gathered to witness the interesting scene, the OCDA operatives merely inscribed a write up on the walls of the building as cover up.
When they stormed out of the premises, the OCDA men again marked on the walls of the houses opposite the Trumpeta office building. Inscribed on Trumpeta building that had been in existence for over 20 years is “Provide your building approval within 7 Days”
Trumpeta management, worried by the development, is uncomfortable with the OCDA move, considering the search the government agency embarked on Item’s street for the newspaper’s office.
The management of the tabloid recalls that in recent times, some government appointees have been making sarcastic comments about Trumpeta editorial contents. In most cases, their complaints were laced with indirect threats to life.
Trumpeta expresses surprise how of all the old and new houses on Item Street, Ikenegbu, Owerri, OCDA chose to search only Trumpeta office location. The operators of the newspaper is also perplexed why it was the only building housing the corporate affairs office of Trumpeta that was marked to produce building plan on Item Street.
Apparently alarmed by the suspected OCDA onslaught, the management has raised the alarm on their lives warning that the government agency should be held responsible if anything funny, unusual or harm befall Trumpeta publishers and workers in the coming days.
When contacted on phone, OCDA General Manager who responded confirmed it was his men who came for the operation. When confronted why the interest of his operatives was location of Trumpeta office and only the building was marked to provide Building Plan after years of existence, he said that it was a normal exercise considering that there could be information on a poor state of a building and the signpost to locate such place could be a famous name for identification like Trumpeta.
But the newspaper responded during the phone exchanges that the building housing Trumpeta has Philips House bodily inscribed on the wall for passersby to see despite the street number on the wall. Other notable signposts in the building for reference points with address boards other than Trumpeta without a signboard are; the Ear, Nose and Throat Clinic and Medical Lab Registration Council office.
In view of the above, the management of Trumpeta newspapers has concluded arrangements to intimate the Nigeria Police Force, Imo State Command and the State Directorate of the State Security Service, DSS of the said development while alerting Imo people of the ominous signals therein.
Moments after this statement hit the social media, a suspected staff of the OCDA could not hesitate to give a hint of what the government agency has in mind when he reacted to a post by one the editorial staff in Facebook.
The staff, ForteeChuwkwuemekaNnadozie while replying to a comment by one of the co-publishers who gave reasons to readers why Trumpeta has raised the alarm states “CONTINUE TALKING UNTIL THEY VISIT THE SECOND TIME, YOU WONT FIND IT FUNNY”
A background check of the said Fortee Chi Nnadozie showed that he is one of the newly recruited workers of OCDA the General Manager brought in. And from the way he opened up may be in the know of OCDA mission to Trumpeta office.
The comments of the OCDA Worker further fertilized the newspaper’s fears that there is more the eye can see in the visit if his submission that “…., Continue until they visit the second time. You won’t find it funny”
On this note, it is imperative to state that Trumpeta doesn’t own a building plan and not the owner the building that houses its office is located on Item Street, Ikenegbu area of Owerri. Trumpeta is one of the six tenants occupying the flats and the OCDA search for Trumpeta office only in the block should serve as source of concern.
It is pertinent to note that the building housing Trumpeta is known as Philip’s House and built by a private investor who owns a similar two-storey building known as Philip’s Hostel after Trumpeta office.
The big question is why spare all the buildings on Item Street including the nearby Philip Hostel to look for Trumpeta and after fruitless efforts to get at any staff, the building was marked for provision of approval plan?
