Wike begins demolition of Rivers hotels

Rivers Governor, Nyesom Wike, at the weekend made good his threat to demolish hotels operating in Port Harcourt, the state capital despite the ongoing 24-hour lockdown to check spread of coronavirus pandemic.

The Governor, while placing the capital city, comprising Port Harcourt and Obio-Akpo local government areas on curfew, vowed to pull down hotels operating during the lockdown and buildings, whose shops opened for business.

A statement by the Commissioner for Information and Communication, Paulinus Nsirim, said some hotels were already found culpable of disobeying Wike’s lockdown directive.

Nsirim identified the defaulting hotels as Prodest Hotel, Alode, Eleme and Edemeteh Hotel, Onne.

He said they would be demolished in line with the Governor’s executive order.

Wike stunned persons, who thought he was joking over the demolition threat, when he accompanied a bulldozer to the Prodest Hotel.

The Governor, who was accompanied by armed security operatives, watched as the earth-moving machine pulverized the hotel.

The same fate befell the Edemeteh Hotel, Onne.

The Governor further demonstrated his no- nonsense disposition to directives for containment of the pandemic when he stormed some roads in the capital city to enforce the lockdown.

Wike, who was in jeans trousers, long-sleeve shirt and a cap, personally stopped cars, including pilot vehicles conveying very important personalities and ordered security operatives to take them to isolation centres.

He ordered vehicles of the defaulters to be impounded and asked mobile policemen escorting their principals to trek home.

The Governor only allowed persons on essential duties and a pregnant woman, who said she was going for ante-natal to proceed to their destinations.