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Reports that filtered into media confines recently have revealed that foremost, hides and skins ponmo importer and distributor in Lagos, Esther Gilbert Kalu, has allegedly financially induced hoodlums and police officers from the Federal Special Anti – Robbery Squad, Lagos, to assault and arrest retailers of hides and skins of a market in oyingbo area of Lagos state.
The victims which included nursing mothers and men were said to have been molested, arrested and detained on 24th, March, 2019.
One of the women, Mercy Okeke who said she had been in the ponmo trade for 5 years, lamented Kalu’s incessant harassments, extortionary tendencies and intimidations; factors she said have made life unbearable for the about 300 ponmo retailers who had been under the vicious control of this importer who she described as desperate and as one who boasts of having adequate control of the Nigeria Police as a result of her regular monetary inducements.
According to Mercy who spoke on behalf of others, Kalu became hostile and confrontational when she discovered the entrance of new importers in the ponmo terrain of Alimosho and Ojo, where she had reigned supreme for years, raking countless millions.
Mercy also revealed that Kalu’s sprawling business empire situated in Ijagemo are of Igando/Ikotun LCDA includes a church, Mercy Spring Liberation Ministries, where amazing level of extortion and intimidation happen.
Speaking Mercy said, “At Esther Kalu’s Church, any offering below N100 attracts insults, sometimes curses. She opens such amount to the congregation in order to slight the giver. She equally makes married women to kneel in the sun publicly as punishment for coming late”.
On the ensuing imbroglio which she said resulted from Kalu’s desperation to retain her ‘Slaves’, Mercy hammered that her oppressive control of the poor retailers must be ended by the authorities. She described the situation where Kalu uses her company, Mercy spring root, hoodlums and an unregistered Ponmo Sellers Association to hoodwink, extort and punish people.
Mercy continued to express that this latest onslaught came about after Esther Kalu petitioned the Police and accused poor retailers of diversion, hijacking and plots to kidnap. She wondered why a millionaire importer would belong with highly impoverished traders in an association that she (Kalu) formed and controls dictatorially, instead of fraternizing appropriately with fellow importers. Against these backgrounds, Mercy said Kalu should know that the retailers have unanimously decided to follow and buy from new importers who offer better products, relationship and prices. She also urged kalu to put up a fight with those importers if she has capacity to flex muscles, instead of trudging on the same people she oppressed, suppressed, impoverished and intimidated for years.
Further, Mercy confessed that the allegations that the hides and skin (Ponmo) from other importers are poisonous are borne out of jealousy and desire to sustain the age long monopoly that has made her a power drunk money bag. She emphasized that the ponmo from the other sources are neater, cheaper but the same as Kalu imports and distributes, stressing that the difference is that Kalu’s Products are not neatly processed and are too expensive, a situation she said gives her all the money, leaving retailers struggling.
Ending, mercy called on the government to come to their rescue as Kalu and her paid thugs are after their lives, she equally expressed delight that the era of N3,700 monthly levies which amounted to nothing for the retailers and the era of using market thugs to chase those who don’t buy from her have ended.
As at the time of filing this report, efforts by Voiceout Nigeria News to get the attention of Esther Kalu for her comment proved abortive as her phone rang out.