The Borno State Government
has explained why it marked at least 47 hotels and what it called “illegal
alcohol joints” for demolition within Maiduguri, the state capital.
The Attorney General and
Commissioner for Justice, Kaka Shehu, mentioned threat to security and
promotion of immoral conduct among teenagers as some of the key reasons
government is not backing out until all such facilities are demolished.
Maiduguri was in the last
few days overwhelmed with tension as the state government moved to carry out
its threat of demolishing about 47 ‘hotels’ that were identified by security
operatives as hideouts for various form of criminality.
The social media was also
agog with divergent views on the intention of government even, as the hoteliers
accused authorities of not giving them adequate notice before deploying
equipment for demolition.
Places like federal
low-cost along Baga road and Galadima in Maiduguri have become notorious spots
where low-profile hotels and brothel owners allegedly make brisk businesses by
not only providing cheap accommodation for guests but also serving as perfect
hideouts for suspected criminals.
A graduating student of
Nursing at the University of Maiduguri was early this year lured by her jealous
boyfriend to one of such hotels where she was bathed with acid. No one reported
the crime even as the perpetrator managed to drag the dying girl on a tricycle
and dropped her off near her home.
A police officer was also
found dead after he was hacked by unknown persons in the same location where
the brothels are located.
Girls and boys of school
ages were severally picked up by their parents from such places after they had
left home for days, to either join a prostitution ring or group of drug
addicts.
The attorney general said
the state government, through the ministry of land and survey, had in January
2018 issued a two months vacation notice to the hoteliers. A repeated notice
was issued in March which expired in April; but none of them was complied by
the hoteliers, he said.
There are about 19 hotels
in Galadima, a notorious suburb where the Nigeria Railway Corporation has its
terminus. The terminus is not far away from where Boko Haram founder, Muhammed
Yusuf, had his main mosque that is now levelled by the military.
Most of the hotels were
built on the plots of land issued to businessmen by the officials of the NRC
over four decades ago for the purpose of erecting shanties for the sale of food
and alcohol.
PREMIUM TIMES also gathered
that most of the hoteliers had no valid documents that authorised them to build
permanent structures on the land that originally belonged NRC.
When the state government
set up a committee to probe the operations of the hoteliers, it was discovered
that most of the hotels in Galadima were built without any form of official
authorisation from government.
What the owners could
provide were faded receipt for payments made to the NRC to enable them erect
temporary shanties to run alcohol joints.
The state attorney general
who is the chairman of the demolition exercise told PREMIUM TIMES that the move
to demolish the blacklisted 47 hotels was borne out of the responsibility of
government to protect lives and secure the city.
But the hoteliers are now
crying foul that the state government only gave them three days of notice
before they moved in to commence demolition. This claim, which PREMIUM TIMES investigation
found to be untrue, had generated outrage on the social media, with various
commentator accusing government of unfair treatment.
“Having experienced Boko
Haram, we as officials of government of Borno State will not fold our arms to
allow anybody or outfit to directly or indirectly breed another set of
criminals for us in any part of Borno state,” Mr Shehu said.
“It has become a thing of
worry for after the restoration of peace in Maiduguri and its environs and to a
larger extent Borno state, we begin to see lots of nefarious activities and
criminal activities springing up in the nooks and crannies of the metropolis of
our city.
“And these criminal outfits
had so far aided and abated the commission of capital offences like murder,
rape, manslaughter, kidnapping, baby factories, drugs addiction, prostitution
as well as indiscriminate use of codeine especially by women and underaged
girls.
“It has also come to the
knowledge of the state government that school age kids and minors were being
used as prostitutes in those hotels and brothels.”
He said it was on that
disturbing note that the state security council held a meeting recently “where
some of these situations were reviewed”.
“And pursuant to the pieces
of intelligence presented to the government by the various security agencies,
the security council in January directed the ban on sales of alcohol at
unauthorised places as well as a total ban on illicit sales and ingestion of
drugs.
“And this is to be enforced
in such a manner that the sales of alcohol would be restricted to some
designated areas such as military barracks, police formations and other places
designated for military and other agencies places of relaxation.
With that directive given,
the commissioner for justice said, the state ministry of land and survey issued
a two months vacation notice to the concerned illicit hotel operators.
“Despite that directive, we
discovered that hotels around Galadima, Baga road, Chezcoan area of federal
low-cost, Ngomari costain and Jiddari Polo, all failed to obey.
“Even the police that is
empowered by the Section 4 could not make this hoteliers comply in the most
civil manner prescribed by government.
“We as a committee had to
go round those areas, took lists of all hotels and demanded for their title
documents but to our surprise none of them has a valid title documents”. All
they could present to us were receipts for temporary allocation for shanties by
the railway corporation, which we later found out were not even issued by the
headquarters of the Nigeria Railway corporation.
“The document they had
actually emanated from some few individuals that have even left the service of
the NRC long ago.
“That flimsy document was
what gave them the impetus of going even further to erect permanent structures
on that location.
“We approached the NRC and
they informed us that they were not part of the allocation of the land to the
illegal hotel and brothel managers. Even the NRC had confirmed to us that they
had long asked the hoteliers to vacate the land. We have a copy of that very
letter.”
The attorney general said
his office receives reports of different cases of criminalities being committed
in Galadima and Baga road on daily basis.
“It was their nonchalant
attitudes that pushed us to go there and mark all the properties for
demolition. Even when we did that, none of them turned up or showed any concern
about what the next action of government.
“When they saw us turn up
with our earthmoving machines, it was then some of them ran to their lawyers
who were even honest enough to inform them that they had a bad case since they
don’t have any title document to their property.
“They were told to go and
seek political solution; but that is not our concern now. It is the security
and wellbeing of the people we govern that is our topmost priority just like
any other government.
“We cannot sit down and
watch another version of Boko Haram spring up right under our nose. Everyday,
in those locations which I can best describe as a mini Sodom and Gommorah, all
kinds of deadly crimes are committed. If you must know, the recent notorious
acid attack on a final year student of nursing from university of Maiduguri was
carried out in Room 4 Paragon Hotel.
“Most of the residents of
that area find it very difficult to sleep both at night and during the day due
to the rowdy activities of the hoteliers.
“We did not rush to go for
demolition, instead we went to that place for the third time to issue warning
telling them that the notice we earlier gave were subsisting and most be
complied with.
“We have had volumes of
reports from community leaders, religious leaders, both christians and Muslims,
traditional leaders complaining about how things are degenerating in that area.
“So to put the record
straight, we have complied with all the requirement of the law in the action we
are taking against the illegal hoteliers and brothel managers. We have a total
of 47 of them; 19 in Baga road and 28 in Galadima area. We had about 20
residential homes turned into brothels with prostitutes and alcohol, which we
felt is not decent enough.
“We have all the security
operators backing us in ridding Maiduguri of this social vices that is capable
of causing us more havoc.
“So we plead with all beer
consumers to reason with us and patronise only the officially designated
locations and joints. Our intention is not to stop the consumption of alcohol
or patronage of prostitutes, because we don’t even have the right by law to do
so. But we have the constitutionally backed right to bring sanity in our
society and save the future of our children that such illegal locations are
capable of destroying.”
HOTELIERS ADMIT FAULT, BEG
FOR MERCY
A group of hoteliers led by
their chairman, Amechi Onwudijo, a popular hotelier in Galadima, told
journalists at a press conference that they were not aware that the land
subleased to them by the NRC officials was illegally done.
The hoteliers, who could
not explain why they resort to erecting permanent structures on the land they
had no right of occupancy, pleaded with government to give them a soft landing
by either compensating their huge investments or allowing them to convert the
hotels to rented apartments.
“Though ignorance of the
law is not an excuse, but we cannot fight government even if we are right on
this part”, said Mr Onwudijo
“All we want is for
government to have mercy and consider the fact that some of us have lived here
in Maiduguri for more than 40 years and have contributed to the economy as
well.”
The Borno State
Commissioner of Land and Surgery, Sugun Mai-Mele, however, said the hoteliers
have no right of negotiating for compensation.
“We don’t have any business
with the hoteliers as a ministry, we only know the NRC and we have communicated
to them that we’re retrieving the land we leased out to them for an overriding
interest of government, which they agreed,” he said.
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