A Ugandan man on a mission to revenge against his father has been accused of setting ablaze the workshop of Nigerian nationals involved in automobile dealings in Pretoria, South Africa.
It was revealed that Mr Owolabi Gbadamosi, an affected associate of the business, narrated that he and his colleagues left work around 6 p.m. on the day of the incident. He confirmed that when they got a call about a fire at their business unit, they assumed it was the occasional transformer explosion that usually occurred.
He clarified that this often happened when thieves tried to steal cables from their substation. He added that such blasts didn’t cause any significant damage to their shop, so they weren’t alarmed but went to check.
When they got close to the venue, they saw flames that agitated them. He said when the partners individually arrived at the business property, the fire service was already at the scene to quench the fire.
Mr Tunji Balogun, a business partner affected by the incident, recounted that he tried to save some of the vehicles during the extinguishing but was advised against taking such dangerous action by the fire brigade.
Before the arson happened, a Ugandan national who sublets part of the location of the dealer’s office said the owner of the office had a conflict with his son.
It was also revealed that the East African man had been operating an automobile spare part business on the property for 7 years. It was also disclosed that sometime in 2022, the man established the same type of business in another part of South Africa and handed over the motor vehicle components business he earlier managed to his son.
According to eyewitnesses, they guessed it could be because the new location was generating more satisfactory net income.
It was reported that to boost the new location, the son secured a loan from his girlfriend and began the operation of the old place which later became somewhat successful.
However, a month ago, the son was said to have made a twelve thousand rand (R12,000.00) transaction via his father’s bank account. This was said to be a result of his inability to set one up for himself due to documentation challenges.
The details after that were that the father only remitted half of the money to him which greatly infuriated him. The son questioned his father’s business acumen, questioning how he expected him to make progress in the business if he was not allowed to reinvest money made back.
Unable to resolve the business feud, the father decided to reclaim the business from his son. He chose to do this because he still had in possession the legal documents related to the business and could use them against him.
When his son refused to vacate the building after being verbally informed, the father obtained a court order restricting his offspring from his surrounding businesses.
Interestingly, weeks before, the son allegedly burned the workplace. It was reported that things got so heated that he attempted to stab his father but was stopped by eyewitnesses. The son threatened he would get back at him and it was not the last time his father would hear from him.
When the business location was set ablaze, the father lamented that the fire-raising was perpetrated by his son. It appears the major target of the arsonist was the portion of his father’s business on the property, although, it escalated to his partners, Mr. Owolabi and Co.’s businesses.
The National Publicity Secretary of the Nigeria Union of South Africa(NUSA), Habib Miller confirmed that nine cars and vehicle parts worth a million, five hundred and fifty thousand rands (R1,550,000.00) were damaged in the fire.
Other NUSA representatives, led by the Acting President, Mrs Doris-Ikeri Solarin, paid a courtesy visit to the scene and sympathised with the affected individuals.
Prior to the visit, the Union had informed Mr. Christopher Oguri, who is in charge of Consular matters at the Consulate General of Nigeria in Johannesburg, South Africa.
He said that the goal of the visit is to exhaust every possibility within the laws of South Africa to see if South African citizens can get some compensation that will bring some level of succour to them.
He disclosed that the suspected arsonist had been apprehended and his statement taken.
