Polycarp Sola – Abakaliki
Hon. Simon Anayo Kingsley, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Narzon De Great Services, has called on the attention of the Ebonyi State Governor, R. T. Hon. Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru, to come to his aid and save his business from collapsing at the state’s shopping mall, citing unjust treatment by the management of the facility.
This media learnt that the Ebonyi state shopping mall that was built by the administration of the former governor, Engr. David Umahi, who is now the current minister for works, is being managed by a company known as the Third Retail Solutions. They oversee the running of the facility in close proximity with the shop owners.
Narrating his plight to our correspondent, Hon. Anayo lamented that the management has failed in their duty to effectively maintain the vital infrastructures in the facility, such as the air conditioners and restrooms, and noted they are unable to provide a constant power supply but continued to task business owners with service charges arbitrarily, which has made business hard.
“My passionate appeal to our dear, loving, kind father of the state, His Excellency, R. T. Hon. Builder Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru, is to come to my aid and the mall at large, because if not done, the mall may totally collapse business-wise because it is already decaying, and only his intervention can rescue the mall.
“Ever since I started my business here, I’ve been complying by paying my service charges until sometime in October 2023, when the air conditioner in my shop developed a fault and stopped working. I reported it to the management, and they promised that the AC would be attended to in the next week, which never came. Until February 2024, they brought one guy who worked on it for 2 days, and it started working again but stopped after just one day.
“When I got back to them, they said the fault is from the compressor, that I should give them 2 weeks, that they want to procure compressors for some other shops that have compressor issues, and I agreed, but to date, nothing has happened.
“In April 2024, I told them that I can no longer continue to be paying my service charge for services that are not being given to me; they charged me the sum of 250,000 naira monthly as a service charge, which I pay.” Anayo said.
Anayo recalled that he sold off his properties in Anambra state to enable him to return home and establish the business in Ebonyi state, but unfortunately, the business environment has not been favorable to him as expected, but in all things, he decided to see it as a long-term investment; according to him, the situation has cost him a loss of capital worth over 30 million naira at the 2024 Yuletide season.
“I used to pull money from my other business to pay the service charge here, but at the end of the day, I will not get value for the services I’m paying for. From October 2023 to April 2024, that is six good months. They said we should wait for the government, and we have been waiting,” Anoyo explained”.
At the time of filing this report, our correspondent had equally observed that there was no power supply at the Narzon De Great shop, as it was disconnected by the third retail solution (management) for what they described as a penalty for noncompliance with the service charge by the shop owner.
Chinonyerem Phoebe, manager at the Narzon de Great shop, also told our correspondent that because of the power outage at the shop, prospective customers would walk away from patronizing them, assuming that they were not open for business, and even when they are able to convince them to stay, the unconducive environment makes them go away. Anayo explained this:
“The effects of this development have affected my business badly in the sense that customers don’t stay here to negotiate business because of the intensive heat due to lack of AC, and I told them I am not paying for October, November, and December. When they confronted me, I told them that we had an agreement that has not been met.
“Earlier this year, they increased our service charge from 1,500 naira per square meters to 3,000 and 5,000, depending on the size of your shop, and said that anyone that fails to pay December charges at the new rate will be disconnected, as well as those that are also owing, and on the 8th of Jan my shop was disconnected. When I called the manager to find out, he said he will show me how connected he is, that nothing on earth will make me be restored except I pay those arrears.”
When contacted by our correspondent, Mr. Eze Igwe, who is the manager of third retail solution, said the service charge at the mall is to Carter for the services of security, cleaners, and power, but not for the maintenance of air conditioning and other structural management.
“It’s about the maintenance of shared facilities, like general cleaning, security, waste disposal, and electricity. Your internal store is your responsibility; it’s what happens in modern trade, so we do not owe him this obligation he is claiming, and he is well aware, and if he’s talking about that he has paid for the air conditioning system, it’s not true because the shops at the mall are greatly subsidized by the state government to allow the businesses to grow.
“All we asked him to do is to pay for the six months of arrears of service charge prior to the increment, which is depending on the size of your shop, and his own shop increment is even less than 50 percent.” Igwe said.
Meanwhile, the senior special assistant to the governor on the Ecumenical Center and shopping mall, Hon. Dunstan Nwogbaga Onyukwu, has urged the management of the mall to be up and doing to ensure smooth operation of the facility and resolve conflicts amicably while promising that the government would ensure transparency and accountability to satisfy the tenants and customers.