Traders under the umbrella of African Arts and Culture Heritage Association (AACHA) have challenged the director general of National Council for Arts and Culture, Otumba Olusegun Runsewe, to make public evidences to back up his claim that the locked-up arts and crafts village is a den of criminals where guns and other weapons are kept.
At a press conference weekend, chairman of the association, Nze Kanayo Chukwumezie, told newsmen that contrary to the claim by the DG, the association had always collaborated with the police and other security agents to ensure sanity in the crafts village.
“We challenge Otumba Runsewe to tell the world in which shop he saw the gun and marijuana he claimed were gotten from the crafts village, whether the persons have been interrogated and where the said items are at the moment,” he said.
Chukwumezie who was flanked during the conference by Mustapha Kidama and Lawal Shaibu Mohammed, BOT chairman and secretary, respectively further challenged him to tell the world the members he met when those things were discovered.
“He should also tell everybody where the alleged stolen 25 or more vehicles he claimed were parked in the crafts village are,” he stated.
He noted that instead of promoting the industry, the DG went about fabricating lies with the intent of killing the industry he was appointed to protect.
He made it clear that while there is an earlier order of the court that asked him to be committed to prison for violating its order, he stated that there is yet another order which the DG also violated whose process of litigation is on. He said he should be used to set an example that court orders are not mere barking of a toothless dog.
