KEY NIGERIAN INVESTOR LOSES OVER N300MILLION TO CABLE THIEVES.

KEY NIGERIAN INVESTOR LOSES OVER N300MILLION TO CABLE THIEVES.

THE EMBARRASING SIGHT OF A LAW ENFORCEMENT VEHICLE INVOLVED IN STEALING CABLE

BY ABDULMUMINI ADEKU

For Barrister Livingstone Oreye, Executive Chairman of Peace Group of Companies comprising its hotels, conference centre and the Peace Global Satellite Communications Limited ,this are not laughing times, he is wondering why on earth cable thieves will target him with all that he had tried to do to help to add value to the lots of humanity.

While speaking exclusively to The News Office Desk of Paedia Express Multimedia at the lounge and reception of the impressive Peace Hotels in highbrow ,Omole Estate in Ojodu Berger ,Lagos,Nigeria ,Oreye almost in tears lamented at how cable thieves in conjunction with paid security operatives planned to send him out of business.

In an hour long interview, The Edo State serial entrepreneur while conducting this reporter through a media presentations of what armed robbers had done to him lately insisted that as many as 35 hoodlums acting in cahoot with law enforcement agents ripped  off his outfit.

According to him,the Executive Director of the group,Mrs Cecilia Oreye had taken the pains to explain to the cable vandals that the product was actually a property bearing the trademark of the Peace Global Satellite Telecommunications Company  and that if they touched it there was going to be a consequence but they refused to listen to her pleas.

He insisted that if anyone called what happened to him stealing then the person was putting it mildly as it was actually a case of armed robbery of great proportion.

He revealed that after a thorough analysis of what the group lost in the unfortunate incident it was clear that they had not lost anything less than N300million  if the current valuation of our foreign exchange was juxtaposed with how much the group procured the assets in 2004 when they acquired it.

He noted that at the moment he was not even looking at such things like the damage done to the manhone or joint box which they use in joining cables so that engineers can have access to it in the future for maintenance. But quickly added that the installation costs will take at least 10percent of the total cost of the cable.

He explained that without a fresh set of cables being laid  under the ground then the entire workforce is damaged because petro jelly is supposed to preserve things but any cut will make the cable to leak   thus making the cable to go permanently bad.

His words:”they steal this cables,burn it into copper and then sell it to those who do jewelries ,we lost N295Million in total,but how did we arrive at this”

“using N80:00 to a dollar when we brought it and we actually did the transaction in 2004 at the rate of N63.8million  and if N80:00 was the exchange rate then ,we will be getting over $700  but if we loot at the situation now and we add it all arithmetically then we should arrive at a sum of around N295Million,75,000”

He continues:”About 25 wore apron with an inscription Goqees Nigeria Limited ,but so far in the cause of our investigations none of them has been found to be working for any private or public enterprise so they were only impersonating a company and to even cap –up the entire scam there were at least 10 other people whom we discovered actually come to the robbery scene with private vehicles”

He noted that the cable thieves found it convenient to have dealt him a hard blow because they found the trade very lucrative hence invested their time and money in conjunction with gun wielding OP Mesa soldiers who even manhandled there staff at Peace Global Satellite Communications  when they were supposed to bury their heads in shame for been caught in the act.