Battered pregnant woman: Lebanese shuns meetingwith govt

A planned meeting between officials of the Lagos
State Government and a Lebanese manager with
Toppan Printing Company, Kaveh Noine,

who
allegedly kicked his seven-month pregnant
subordinate, Mrs. Alexandra Ossai, in her stomach
was shelved after Noine refused to show up.
Noine was arrested by the Lagos State Police
Command a few days after The PUNCH reported
that Ossai had allegedly lost her baby due to the
kick. She allegedly began bleeding in the early hours
of December 16, 2013 and had an emergency
surgery performed on her at the Mercy Hospital
Fagba, to remove the dead foetus.
An invitation had been extended to Noine on
Tuesday, when a team of state government
officials, led by the Director of the Office of the
Public Defender, Mrs.Omotola Rotimi, paid a visit to
the company, located off Adeniyi Jones Avenue,
Ikeja.
At the Thursday meeting which was held at the
Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation,
an unidentified employee of Toppan showed up
instead of Noine and presented a letter explaining
Noine’s absence.
Those present at the meeting, which was chaired by
Rotimi, included Ossai’s lawyer, Mr. Courage
Erhuen, representatives of the OPD, WAPA, the
Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency and
Public Relations Officer of the Lagos State Public
Advice Centre, Mr. Alex Omorondion.
The letter, which was said to have been written by
Toppan’s counsel, Mr. Toyin Pinhero, asked that the
meeting be postponed till January 16, 2014, to
enable Pinhero attend the meeting as he was
reportedly out of the country at the moment.
Rotimi, in her response to the letter said, “We did
not invite Toppan as a company to come for this
meeting; the allegation is against an individual,
Noine, and not Toppan. Noine could still have
attended this meeting because he is in Nigeria; he
is on bail. Even if there is no representative of
Toppan here, Noine should have honoured the
invitation.”
The OPD director then informed the unidentified
employee from Toppan that the meeting would be
rescheduled to a time that would be convenient for
everyone present.