By Amos Aar
A lingering quarrel between the Benue State Government (BNSG) and Treaties Resort and Parks Ltd, Makurdi came to public knowledge last week over the revocation of a lease agreement of JS Tarka Foundation Complex located in Makurdi, Benue State capital.
While the state government is contending that Treaties Resort and Parks Ltd, a private entertainment/hospitality firm owned by Mr Victor Hemba, has over time failed to comply with the terms of the lease agreement, the company is counter-alleging that it is the state government that is at fault, a reason why the government had been dragged to court.
Treaties Resort and Parks Ltd took over the management of J.S. Tarka Foundation Complex on April 13, 2016. However, the state government, claiming that the inability of the firm in fulfilling the terms of the lease agreement it reached with BNSG for eight years prompted the relevant state authority to terminate the contract and reclaim the complex and hand it over to the Benue State University (BSU) on January 26, 2023 to manage it henceforth as an academic centre for Middle Belt and Minority Rights Studies.
The seizure and transfer of the property by the state government is despite an ongoing litigation by Treaties Resort and Parks Ltd, which is asking the court to pay it over two hundred million naira being cost of renovation expended on the complex upon takeover.
The Benue State Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Mr. Mike Inalegwu, told newsmen that the handover of the complex to BSU was in line with an earlier resolution of the State Executive Council, following alleged inability of Treaties Resort and Parks Ltd in paying the sum of N8 million annually as contained in the agreement, and which the commissioner said had accumulated up to N40 million.
“We are doing this [seizure and transfer to BSU] today [January 26, 2023] based on the resolution and directive of the Benue State Executive Council which will obviously add value to our state,” Inalegwu said, stating that “the product of illegality produces illegality, it doesn’t produce legal stamp”.
The commissioner said the J.S. Tarka Foundation Complex was leased to Mr Hemba, the chairman of Treaties Resort and Parks Ltd, with a certain condition, “and the condition was that he would use that place for two years without paying a kobo and the first one year after that, that means the third year, he must pay N6 million to the Government of Benue State. The 4th year N8 million, subsequent years, N8 million. Until five years, he did not pay a kobo and the agreement was that failure to obey any of the conditions, the ministry will have no other ground rather than to terminate the agreement”, Inalegwu said.
He further told journalists that Mr Hemba who had violated all the six grounds of the agreement was invited for a meeting severally but had refused to honour the invitations. He accused Mr Hemba of attempting to instead bribe him. “He had a tendency of influencing people at the helm of affairs of the ministry and he wanted to do the same thing to me with monetary inducement. I told him that agreement is agreement,” the commissioner alleged without presenting evidence of Hemba’s attempt to bribe him.
But Hemba in an interview claimed that he wrote severally to the ministry and even explained his challenges verbally and the ministry under the immediate past commissioner, Hon. Mrs Ngunan Addingi, understood with him. He also said that the sum of N2 million he gave to the Ministry was not to induce anybody but part of his efforts towards paying the annual fee. Hemba, however, neither provided any evidence of payment of N2 million and the letters claimed to have written to the ministry to substantiate his claims.
The commissioner also alleged that after Hemba had used prominent people to plead with the state government, he was graciously given another condition to pay half of the N40 million he was owing but he still failed to pay. “So, as at today, he is owing us N40 million for the lease agreement, he is the one owing us,” Inalegwu said.
But while the ministry is claiming being owed N40 million, Mr Hemba is counter-claiming that the state government is owing his company N205 million as compensation for the expenses incurred to upgrade the J.S. Tarka Foundation Complex. He however did not tender any evidence of the expenses he claimed to have incurred.
Reacting to the claims of renovation of the complex, the commissioner contended that Hemba had not added “an inch to it”.
“When we were in a meeting, we asked him, if you actually renovated that place; who was your supervisor from the ministry? What are the documents that you gave us that you want to renovate that place? What and what have you added? The other woman signed that she spent N50 million on that place and for him [Hemba] using that place, he must return that N50 million to the woman by himself”, the commissioner maintained
Inalegwu said Treaties Resort and Parks Ltd dragged the state government to court and when the government replied him in court, he opted to settle out of court “because he had no defence while we had a solid defence that we presented at the court of competent jurisdiction. We called him to come and we asked him his conditions. He said we should pay him N150 million for all that he spent on that place. We told him he never spent anything. Our own condition is that he should go back and bring our N40 million for the usage of that place which he had never paid. When he does that, we will withdraw our defence and say we have settled. But till today, we have never heard from him. So, there is no contractual agreement between us anymore.”
But Hemba insisted that the case was still in court since BNSG did not do his bidding, although he did not present any evidence to that effect just as the commissioner also did not provide evidence of settlement out of court
Inalegwu said that if Treaties Resort and Parks Ltd failed to pay the state government the N40 million, the government would use legal means to collect the money. He also revealed that the firm did not take the government to court over the closure of the complex, saying it was after he failed to fulfil the second agreement of paying half of N40 million that he headed to court to demand for the money.
Inalegwu, who disclosed that the Benue State Government terminated the contract eight months ago and that Mr Hemba was only parading himself around, ordered for more security to be beefed up at the complex and that anyone claiming ownership of the place other than BSU as from Thursday, January 26, 2023 should be apprehended for trespass.
“He told us that there was an injunction and we asked him to show us a copy of the injunction. But up till today, more than eight months, there was no copy of the injunction. When you get an injunction from a court, it’s a bailiff of the court that will now serve us. He has not served the government of Benue State up till this moment. So, whether the injunction is flying, he said it was at the Ministry of Justice. We now sent to the Ministry of Justice but there was nothing”.
Asked how many years BSU would manage the JS Tarka Foundation complex, Hon. Inalegwu said, “in perpetuity”.
Journalists also demanded for documentary evidence of the agreement from the commissioner. But he told them to go and write what he called “subpoena” before he would provide it for them.
Reacting to the various claims by the commissioner, Hemba told journalists in a press conference that he actually took over the complex on April 13, 2016 with a 2-year moratorium which ended in 2018 and was supposed to start paying N6 million yearly to the state government but the Covid-19 lockdown affected the business adversely and so he could not meet up with the condition.
“So, I paid the state government N2 million and wrote to the Ministry of Information and Tourism when Hon. Mrs Ngunan Addingi was commissioner and they gave me the go-ahead because I sought additional moratorium from the ministry. But when she resigned to contest election, he [Inalegwu] came in newly and was not abreast with the happenings,” Hemba stated, alleging that the state government did not obtain court injunction to seal the place. He described the action as “arbitrary trespass” as he said due process was not followed.
Although Hemba agreed that the complex was locked before he went to court as claimed by the commissioner, he insisted that the act was illegal as he was still a tenant. He said: “From the day they locked this place, my loans are skyrocketing. I took bank loans to put in here. A bank loan of N60 million that I took, they are now telling me that it is N110 million. I have four cases in court from people who were supposed to come and do weddings here – N4 million, N5 million, N10 million, and so on. Till today, I’m paying security people without generating revenue.
Contrary to the commissioner’s claim that Treaties Resort and Parks Ltd went to court to claim only the money and not the property, Hemba said the court ordered that he should continue managing the J.S. Tarka Foundation Complex. “I approached the court and the court process is on. The court directed that the status quo be maintained, that I should hold on to the structure,” he claimed.
Hemba who further claimed that he had spent N248 million to upgrade the complex initially told newsmen that he had asked the state government to pay him N380,000,0000 as compensation. When asked what were his precise prayers in court, Hemba said: “My prayers are, if they want to take this place from me, they should go into the agreement we had. It’s stated clearly that for you to terminate this place, you will give me six months’ notice and then settle all my expenditure with inconvenience of N50 million. We placed it at N155 million and then N50 million. That’s N205 million”.
When journalists demanded for a copy of the court injunction, Hemba said he did not have it as at the time of the interview but promised to make it available at a later time. He however did not do so as at press time.
Foundation to serve as Centre for Middle Belt and Minority Rights Studies
Taking possession of the complex on January 26, the Vice Chancellor of BSU, Prof. Joe Iorapuu, said the place was handed over to BSU in 1992 but the then Vice Chancellor, Prof. Charles Gbilekaa Vajime, did not takeover owing to some challenges as the university was just starting.
“What has happened today is history repeating herself, and I want to believe that everyone would prefer that a facility like this should belong to an [academic] institution,” the VC said.
He added: “This is what is obtainable globally. So, what the governor of Benue State has done is not new; especially with Tarka Foundation because this foundation was established for a purpose and the name Tarka alone is an institution.
“This Foundation was established to protect and ensure the sustainability of that name in terms of history, in terms of research, in terms of knowledge-base for the Middle Belt, the minorities and the disadvantaged in this country at large”.
Prof. Iorapuu said BSU will use the complex as a centre for Middle Belt and minority rights studies.
“This place will be our own Arewa House. So, by the time we stock our information here, you would not need to go to Arewa House, Kaduna to get information. People will come around to dig information for research including journalists,” the VC said.
