The owner of one of the hotels demolished by the Rivers state Government, Promise Gogorodari, says his family and relatives feed from the proceeds of the hotel.
Recall that the Rivers state Government demolished two hotels in the state on Sunday after it claimed they flouted the lockdown order.
Speaking with The Punch, the hotelier who is based in Lagos, insisted that he did not flout any lockdown order in the state and was sad that he was not given a fair hearing before the hotel was demolished.
“I am based in Lagos but I am not in the right frame of mind to speak now. There is nobody who will not feel bad about this. It is a hotel that I built for the past seven years. The demolition of hotels is a setback to the state in terms of investment.
“That was an investment that was taking care of my family and relatives and people around me. There was no fair hearing before the demolition took place. With this, many people are out of jobs.
“I did not violate any order. The government was supposed to do some investigations before doing that. And if they found me wanting, then another procedure should be followed; not demolishing a structure like that,” Gogorodari said.
Odunews.com reports that the Rivers state Governor, Nyesome Wike, said that the owner of the hotel unleashed terror on task force officials prior to the demolition.
He said: “Similarly, we acted against the hotelier because, apart from using the facility to jeopardize the lives of our citizens in violation of the extant law, the owner audaciously unleashed thugs lead by the Eleme Local Government Youth Leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and inflicted severe injuries on our taskforce members who went to enforce the law against the continued operation of the hotel.
“As we speak, nobody knows the fate of the lives of most of the victims of that brazen and deadly attack given the severity of the head injuries they sustained.
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