Eight months after he publicly cried out that he had been defrauded of $164 million (about N23 billion) by Capital Oil and Gas CEO Ifeanyi Ubah, the woes of Coscharis Group CEO Cosmas Maduka increased this morning when his company’s Head Office located at No 1-7 Coscharis Street, Kirikiri Industrial Estate, Maza-Maza, Lagos, was gutted by fire.

A report by the Lagos-based RayPower FM said that the fire had already razed the warehouse and was still raging.

“The fire fighters have run out of water and have told the workers (of Coscharis) to buy water for them to use and continue fighting the fire,” RayPower said. It is not yet clear what caused the fire.

A modest billionaire businessman who hardly makes noise, Dr. Maduka had in early November last year cried out about how Dr. Ubah, his younger kinsman from Anambra in Nigeria’s South-East, milked him dry through the diversion of petroleum products scheduled to be imported and sold in Nigeria.

A household name in Nigeria, Coscharis Group evolved out of a modest company, Maduka Brothers Company incorporated in 1977. The company metamorphosed from Maduka Brothers Company to COSDAV Motors and later to the Coscharis Group.

“From a modest beginning with the importation and distribution of motorcycles and its spare parts, ball and roller bearings, and original Japanese motor spare parts, the company has expanded its frontiers to include such business as sales and services of automobiles, BMW, FORD and LANDROVER, ABRO brand of auto-care products, Computer and Accessories, Medical equipment, General Air conditions; Financing/Leasing etc.,” says the company’s website.

•Photo shows Coscharis Head Office.