Ebonyi indigenes tackle Umahi over ownership of multi-billion naira PH hotel

By Tobias Lengnan Dapam

Association of Ebonyi State Indigenes in Diaspora (AESID) has asked Governor David Umahi to speak up over a viral picture of a multi-billion Naira hotel located in Rivers state, allegedly named after Osborn Umahi.

The association expressed concern that the governor had maintained the sealed lips since the images of the said Port-Harcourt Osborn La Palm Hotel went viral on the social media.

The hotel which is almost completed is said to worth about N40 billion.

In a statement released to newsmen Sunday in Abuja, by its President, Amb Pascal Oluchukwu, urged the anti-graft agencies to begin to gather their facts and evidences in case of any vow play.

According to AESID, the said hotel is located in the heart of the oil-rich city of Port-Harcourt, Rivers state specifically at ‪No. 3 Olaka Street‬, off Abacha Road, G.R.A, Port-Harcourt has a roof-top swimming pool and a Presidential Penthouse as one of its many special features.

The statement said: “The fact that the said hotel project started just in 2016 is even more worrisome for the indigenes of a state like Ebonyi where endemic and anthropogenic poverty is the order of the day, having been accurately ranked the poorest state in the entire Southern Nigeria and the 3rd poorest among the 36 States of the Nigerian Federation.

“Our position on this revelation is that Governor Umahi must speak up on this monumental allegations within at least 24 hours and the anti-graft agencies should begin to gather their facts and evidences aright and await the days of reckoning, knowing that immunity protects him from being prosecuted by the Nigerian government even at this point.”

The Ebonyi governance and accountability platform said: “We believe it should be wisdom for Governor Wike to revoke the land where the said hotel is situated especially if Umahi fails to open-up on these weighty allegations against his person.”

Reacting to the spate of insecurity in the state, AESID said its deeply worried that the political actors, have continued to heat up the polity by dispensing mindless violence, killing and maiming innocent and helpless Ebonyians particularly those in opposition parties.

“To this end therefore, AESID, again calls on the Police and indeed, all heads of intelligent security agencies to uncover and nip these killings in the bud and bring all perpetrators of these heinous attacks to book no matter how highly placed.”