CHAIRMAN, Senate Committee on Navy, Senator George Sekibo, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Rivers East has thrown his weight behind the decision of the Rivers State Government to build school on the site of a demolished hotel in the state.
According to Sekibo, the government reserved every right to convert confiscated property to public use.
Speaking with Journalists yesterday in Abuja, Senator Sekibo also said that governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, a lawyer by profession and a democrat, followed the law and due process before approving the demolition of the affected hotels.
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State had last week, approved the construction of a primary school at the location of the demolished Prodest Hotel in Eleme Local Government Area of the state.
Recall that the state government had last week, pulled down Edemete Hotel in Onne and Prodest Hotel in Eleme in the State over allegations that the operators had flouted an order that hotels should be closed following the outbreak of the Coronavirus COVID-19 Pandemic.
Speaking further the Senator Sekibo said, “I feel concerned about the negative comments against the Governor on the social media, however, most of the things we read on social media are unverified and we don’t even know whether they are true or not.
“I have not read the Executive Order which the governor signed as part of the measures to curb COVID – 19. I am not also conversant with other instructions that he has been giving in the state, since I have been in Abuja from the time the Federal Government locked down the FCT and other parts of the country till now.
“The law has to take its full course on whoever owns any hotel and he is contravening the lockdown order or any of the laws of the state, the governor is a democrat and he is a lawyer. Being a lawyer, I don’t think he will just wake up leave Port Harcourt, where there are many hotels, and move to Eleme and target just two hotels to destroy. Maybe, something criminal or anti-public interest was being done there. I believe that he will follow due process and he may have followed the due process because I don’t know all the laws in the state.
I am not in the state House of Assembly. They may have their own laws that they are also following. For instance, if a kidnapper is caught red-handed on the strength of the anti-kidnapping law in the state, he goes in for it and this law covers other areas of criminal activities.
“So a person who commits kidnapping and related criminal activity may have his property confiscated. If a property is confiscated based on the application of the laws of the State that is the law and you can’t fault the Governor based on that.
“The structure on the property could be brought down and the land left bare without development or the Government may decide to use the land for any other thing in the interest of the public”.
“I have heard stories that one of the young men that owns one of the hotels is an alleged criminal, declared wanted by the State Government. If it is a criminal situation that has to do with kidnapping, and killing, then the anti – kidnapping law of the State will hold him”.
“If the law holds him and the Governor takes such action against him, there is no way you can go and query the Governor. The Governor is fighting to ensure that COVID – 19 does not spread much in the State”.
When asked on the conversion of the property for building a primary school, Sekibo said, “if the law said a criminal’s land should be confiscated, It will be taken over by the government that’s the meaning. If it is now a government land, government has the power to put whatever structure it wants to build on it. If the government decide to build a school on the land, it is for public or community service”.
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