By SAMSON NWAFOR

Mill owners as well as the traders in the popular Abakaliki Rice Milling Industry has accused the General Manager, Ebonyi Rice World, Hon. Mathew Uguru of fueling the leadership crisis rocking the industry.

Mr. Uguru is alleged to have perfected plans to impose unpopular persons as leaders of the industry, as against the State government’s order that a transparent election be conducted to elect a new leadership of the industry after the dissolution of the Samuel Ogodo – led caretaker committee.

Chief Maduka Anyigor, a rice mill owner, alleged that Mr Uguru vowed that the Industry would never have their peaceful election unless they conceded to his demand.

Anyigor explained that with the ugly experience of the rice mill owners in the hands of the immediate past leadership imposed on them, they were not shifting ground until they were allowed to produce their leaders by themselves.

He alleged that Hon. Uguru boasted of his connections and had vowed that the rice mill owners must allow his choice candidates to head the industry or continue to suffer perpetual business bankruptcy.

Chief Anyigor who explained that he had spent not less than thirty years in the Abakaliki milling industry, lamented that within the time Mr Samuel Ogodo was the caretaker Chairman, the mill witnessed the highest level of business stagnancy, adding “all our customers from rural areas stopped coming to mill to sell their rice due to high taxation and unnecessary extortion from boys working for Hon Mathew Uguru.”

Speaking, one of the traders who gave his name as Mr Sylvester Ugwumba told our Correspondent that he stopped coming to the mill for about a year ago, due to excessive taxation from the immediate past caretaker Chairman.

“Abakaliki Rice Mill is our major place of buying rice; since I started my business for the past twenty years, but all of a sudden things started increasing every day. Empty sack that was sold for #150 for 50kg skyrocketed to #300, and 25kg which was #100 became #250 and so many other extortions.”

When contacted for reaction on his mobile, the General Manager Ebonyi Rice World, Chief Mathew Uguru, denied the allegation, saying that he is not a member of Abakaliki rice milling industry.

“Do you believe that thing they told you? And besides, I am not a member of the industry,” he told our Correspondent. (Daily Independent)

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