On May 10, River state Government demolished two hotels for violation of lockdown order. The action of Nelson Wike drew a lot of fire from the public. Consequently, on Sunday, May 20, Rivers State Government confirmed 27 new cases of coronavirus and in a rather strange turn of events, the manager of the demolished Hotels is among the new cases.
The state’s Commissioner for Information and Communication, Paulinus Nsirim who made the disclosure Sunday evening said the development gives the highest credence to the action taken by the State Government in demolishing the Hotels on May 10.
Nsirim recalled that, “Prodest Hotel was demolished two weeks ago because the owners violated Executive Order 7 which banned the operation of hotels.
“The COVID-19 Taskforce members from the Local Government who went to enforce the Executive Order were brutalized and dehumanized leading to the death of one of them.”
He had said: “Apart from using the facility (hotel) to jeopardize lives of citizens in violation of the extant law, the owner audaciously unleashed thugs led by Eleme LG Youth Leader of PDP and inflicted severe injuries on our task-force members who went to enforce the law against continued operation of the hotel.”