Ghenadii Ioxa, mayor of Drepcăuţi village in Briceni district, claims that the representatives of the company Drebozaci SRL have been deceiving the village residents, the public opinion, and even the courts for years regarding the real situation about the agricultural land in the village. The mayor says that only an objective commission will be able to clarify the things.

Ghenadii Ioxa called a press conference on Thursday to dismiss the allegations brought against him by the leaders of the agricultural enterprise and a group of locals. He was accused of being responsible for driving the enterprise into bankruptcy, but the mayor says it’s not true.

Ghenadii Ioxa says that he has had proxies for around 300 people’s land shares since 2015, and that the that Drebozaci falsified its lease contracts. “It’s unacceptable to come to a village and take the land of 1,600 people by making false contracts for ten years,” said the mayor.

According to Ioxa, the administrator of Drebozaci purports to be a bona fide foreign investor who has brought money to Drepcăuţi, when “in fact, he comes and seizes a whole village, goes to the bank and takes out a credit by pledging the collectively owned equipment as collateral.”

The mayor also says the company has denied people’s access to their own land. The peasants filed a lawsuit to claim damages from unpaid rent. Ghenadii Ioxa says that the proceedings lasted for years, and it is not true that the court pronounced the decision in a few minutes, as claimed by Drebozaci representatives. Moreover, the decision was also upheld by the appeals court and the SCJ.

As for Ala Proca, the local woman who accused him of threatening and even assaulting people during the electoral campaign, Ghenadii Ioxa says it is actually the woman who, along with the accountant of Drebozaci, falsified the contracts with the land shares. This was documented by the investigation, but today nothing is known about that file.