VON Automobile Nigeria Limited has described Senate allegations of economic sabotage as “falsehood and premeditated blackmail to disparage the company’s impregnable accomplishment”.
VON Automobile Managing Director Adetokunbo Aromolaran expressed this remark in his speech at an extraordinary session with the media at a guided tour of the company’s facility in Ojo, Badagry Highway Lagos.
Mr. Aromolaran said: “for the avoidance of doubt, we regard the whole exercise as one of blackmail, the objectives of which will not be realized because they are false.”
He therefore cautioned the media to always investigate their reports and ignore calculated blueprints for calumny and cheap blackmail.
Senator Hope Uzodinma-led Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff had on October 28 during one of its oversight assignments claimed it discovered 1,500 units of exotic vehicles concealed in the Volkswagen warehouse, wondering if the vehicles were assembled at a deserted facility with disused equipment, he was quoted.
The Committee consequently labeled VON Automobile as economic saboteur, warning it would organize a public hearing to unravel allegations of sharp practices even when the Nigeria Customs Service public relations officer Wale Adeniyi was quoted as saying he couldn’t verify the development.
VON Automobile Limited is the local assemblers of Hyundai, Nissan and Volkswagen passenger cars with Ashok Leyland and Iveco buses and trucks respectively.
Dismissing the allegations as smirk of a preconceived plan to embarrass VON Automobile, the company through its media consultant, Manny Philipson quoted Aromolaran as saying the company is a responsible organization guarded by ethical values and believe in the rule of law and constituted authority in the discharge of its duty, even when times become “frustratingly overbearing”.
