Nigerian indigenous automobile company, Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing, IVM has insisted that the Imo State Government is yet to pay N2.5 billion debt for the purchase of various IVM vehicles including their parts from the company.
This is against the backdrop of a press statement issued by the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Declan Emelumba on behalf of the Imo State Government.
Emelumba had alleged that the state government has serviced over 70 percent of the debt.
But in a swift reaction, IVM’s, Head, Corporate Communications and Affairs Cornel Osigwe, noted that the statement was written to water down the facts and substance stated in the company’s earlier statement.
Cornel added that the matter is before the courts and has always believed in the integrity of the judiciary to do the right thing when facts are stated.
The company spokesperson went further to lay the facts straight that the government bought vehicles worth
N5B In March 2020 on the assumption of office.
He said Imo state Governor Hope Uzodinma at his assumption to office, paid for its first procurement of Innoson Vehicles it ordered from the company.
He went further by stating that several options were instituted including setting up a payment plan on a monthly basis which was not kept, hence the approach of the courts to recover the debt as the last option, since the government rebuffed all entreaties made to him to pay up.
The nation’s foremost indigenous vehicle manufacturer and the Imo State Government have been at loggerheads over the business arrangement between the two which has turned sour following irreconcilable differences over the quality of Service and the payment for services rendered.
The duo have since taken the matter to court after the failure of conciliation and negotiations to settle their areas of dispute.
The latest flare-up may not be unconnected with earlier issues and the happenings in court over the case which has pitched hitherto good business partners on different sides of the divide.