"I Did Not Violate Any Law" - Owner Of Hotel Demolished By Gov. Wike

The owner of Prodest hotel, one of the hotels demolished and supervised by Rivers state government on Sunday May 10, has said he never violated any law to warrant the demolition of his building.

The government said the action was taken because the hotels violated the lockdown directive put in place in a bid to curb the spread of Coronavirus in the state.

Speaking in an interview with Punch, Promise Gogorobari, owner of Prodest hotel, debunked claims that his establishment violated the governor's lockdown order.

He said,

''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.

Definitely, this will affect investors. I invested in the business so that I can take some people off the street, but all government is doing is to demolishing it without a proper investigation”.