Hotel Demolition: Wike’s Ex-Commissioner Attacks Rivers Govt

Governor Nyesom Wike has been condemned for his recent action by the former Commissioner for Information in Rivers State, Austin Tam-George.

Recall that Governor Wike had ordered the demolition of two hotels in the Eleme community, it was reported that the hotels were demolished for violating Coronavirus executive order.

The former commissioner in a statement released on Monday regretted that a legal suit was not be filed against the affected hotels before a court of law.

He also complained that the owners had no opportunity to defend themselves before a judge.

Tam-George described Wike’s Executive Order as a spurious, draconian, ill-defined and sickening pattern of lawlessness and impunity.

he noted that his former principal in July 2017, shut down and revoked the Certificate of Occupancy of Novotel Hotel in Port Harcourt, allegedly because his critics lodged there.

Tam-George wrote: “In the past three years, Mr Wike has deployed his private army of thugs, disguised as State “Task Forces”, to kill innocent citizens, loot markets and shops, terrorize young women in Port Harcourt, and extort money from drivers and traders.”

“On the 24th April, Sergeant Lavender Elekwachi, a traffic warden on duty in the Eneka area of the State, was murdered in cold blood by Governor Wike’s marauding Task Force.”

“On the 27th of April, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michele Bachelet warned governments to refrain from violating fundamental human rights under the guise of emergency measures during the COVID-19 crisis.”

“But in the past six weeks of the pandemic, Governor Wike has caused the death of a law enforcement agent, confiscated private properties, demolished hotels, brutalized market women in Port Harcourt and held pilots and oil workers on essential duties in illegal detention.”

“The alarming acts of lawlessness by Mr Wike means that Rivers State has descended into a state of anarchy. State institutions have been hijacked by a lawless government, and the people themselves have been ‘kidnapped’ by a moral hoodlum in power.”

Tam-George called on the United Nations Human Rights Commission to commence criminal proceedings against Wike.

He appealed to the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) to initiate money laundering investigations, visa restrictions and asset freezes against the Rivers helmsman.

“Governor Wike is well-known for his expensive vacation junkets to European cities, even as children die from preventable water-borne diseases in Rivers State”, the former commissioner added.