Warning: Illegal string offset 'url' in /home/ndxajrbn/public_html/wp-content/plugins/accelerated-mobile-pages/components/logo/logo.php on line 22 Towncrier
When the news of the demolition of Prodest Motel, a half-star hotel owned by a friend and an Ogoni, located in Alode Eleme broke, the public had been inundated with a lot of misinformation.
The real truth is, Prodest Hotel is a victim of an Eleme LGA PDP intraparty and LGA leadership tussle. The hotel was unfortunately cut in a crossfire and entangled with a web of community crisis. Simple!
That is a simple truth. But rather than deal with the fact and the real issues, altogether, lies had been told about;
an alleged Prodest Motel violation of Governor Wike’s lockdown order on the hotels to suspend operations.
an attack on the task force enforcement team allegedly carried out by the hotel staff and or hired thugs.
the fact that the hotel owner is a member of the PDP.
the fact that the PDP youth leader is the hotel owner, and
the alleged use of the hotel to aide criminality.
As the public continued to grapple with the confusion of differentials in the stories emanating from the Prodest demolition saga, it has become compelling that the public must be told the untold story, the real and factual story. And in doing so, I will try to deal in the order that was falsely peddled, just as outlined above.
Demolished Prodest Hotel
First, is to clearly say that Prodest Hotel did obey the Rivers State government’s COVID 19 lockdown order. The hotel was never in operation and never violated the order of government from the day lockdown commenced, and until the time of the facility was raided. This is authoritative.
The said Eleme PDP youth leader is the chairman of the COVID-19 Lockdown Task Force team in the LGA, constituted by the local council authority. He also triples as Alode community youth leader and also aspiring to be a General Eleme Youth leader. Prodest Hotel is situated in Alode, his community. Himself and key members of his Covid-19 lockdown enforcement team had reservations earlier booked and were staying in Prodest Hotel, where they normally rendezvous after the days work.
The Chairman of the Eleme Covid-19 Task Force Princewill Osaro Ejiji (hope I got his name right), belong to a tendency of the PDP that is believed to have taken over key positions in the party structure of the LGA, even though they are seen to be newcomers in the PDP.
The other forces, those who claimed to be real owners of PDP in Eleme seem not to be pleased with the development. They will leave no chance to strike at every opportunity. There is a cold war between both tendencies. There is no denial of these facts.
Governor Wike inadvertently made matters worse in the process. Recall, the Governor, in a bid to further strengthen the lockdown enforcement, had met with traditional rulers and council chairmen across the State, where he instructed them to set up similar task forces in their various clans and villages.
Alode community is in Nchia clan. Eleme Local government is made up of two clans, Nchia and Odido. There are communities and villages in these clans.
Nchia and Odido, including villages under them, had in response to the Governor’s directives set-up their various task forces, necessitating a situation where there seem to be a multiplicity of task forces, command controls and differences in communication channels.
Now, most of these community-based Task Force was created with underlined sentiments among different leaders with rival political interests and agenda to pursue within the PDP and the community. It was an opportunity to advance the interest of their various factions in Eleme. Alode, where the LGA task force chairman comes from, did have her share of the task force rivalry.
Immediately the Governor made his broadcast, the Prodest Hotel manager drew the attention of the LGA task force chairman to the latest order, asking that his guests be evacuated from the hotel following the government’s ban.
Based on the Governor’s directives, the task force chairman told him not to bother, that he is in charge. He said to the hotel manager that since he and his guests were already lodged before the broadcast, there would be no problem, reaffirming Gov Wike’s position to informing the task force of such a situation, which he was in charge anyway.
The hotel, believing that they had gotten permission to keep their existing guests, which in any case were supposedly the enforcers, they were still not admitting new guests. They had to keep their gate ajar, but only for the usual evening rendezvous of Mr. Ejiji and members of his task force. The hotel had become more like their operational point of departure for them.
Dae Steven Deegbara
As the political rivalry continued to widen between the LGA task force and the newly formed community task force members, one day, the community team have noticed that the hotel appeared open to the LGA’s Ejiji team, they had to come when others had gone out for work and demanded 100k from the hotel manager else he will be dealt with.
The manager didn’t have any such money to give. This same team had collected N7,000 from another nearby hotel and allowed them to operate. Angered by the refusal of Prodest Motel to pay the N100,000and perceived habitation of Ejiji their rival, the community-based team had to hint their bosses, who then informed the Governor. It was an opportunity to undo their political rival and get Ejiji out of the way, Prodest was now their battleground. It was on that not that the State team was drafted in.
On the alleged attack on the police and the enforcement team last Saturday, it was a fracas between the visiting team and the LGA team.
The LGA team and hotel management were surprised. They never knew that the police and those who came with the community team were actually coming from the state to enforce the Governor’s directives and that they have been reported to superior authorities, so there was heated disagreement as to what authority they have when the new team tries to enforce arrest and the lockdown order. No member of staff of the Prodest Hotel was involved in that disagreement. They just watched with disbelief of what was going on.
So when we say that Prodest Hotel is an innocent victim of Eleme PDP internal wrangling, you can now understand what we meant.
The hotel owner is a good friend of mine. He is from khana LGA, not Eleme. He is not a politician neither is he a member of any political party. He is a private sector worker based in the western part of Nigeria. Mr. Princewill Osaro Ejiji is not the owner of Prodest Motel, he and his Eleme Covid-19 task force were only hotel guests.
The management of Prodest hotel was never aware of the fact that Mr. Osaro Ejiji was having any criminal record hanging on his neck, not until the press release by the commissioner of information was made public. All that is known about him is that he is the Covid-19 task force chairman and president of Alode youths, Prodest hotels’ host community. The hotel does not harbor criminals. Prodest, I am aware, maintains one of the best crime-free relationships with the police in Eleme LGA.
Governor Wike’s decision and eventual demolition of Prodest Motel, I still maintain was hasty and too hash. It wasn’t a criminal matter. Destroying people’s sources of livelihood in the face of dwindling world economy is to the extreme. There should have been a thorough investigation and fair hearing granted to the hotel management before whatever action. Prodest never commits such a crime that should warrant such punishment.
The avalanche of condemnation that had greeted this action by the Rivers State government is a clear pointer to the fact that the decision is unpopular and shouldn’t have been in the first place. I sincerely hope that the Governor will come to terms with reason and find an ameliorating way out of this.
As someone said, any decision of the government that does not wear a human face is tyranny. I had chosen to support the government in the fight against #COVID19, but in doing so I won’t hesitate to make my contribution known on areas that I feel things could have been done differently. The action of Gov Wike to demolish Prodest Motel is inhumane and caution was thrown to the wind.
Dae Steven Deegbara is a friend to the hotel owner.