Rebuttal Statement by the Board and Management of Abia Hotel Limited, Umuahia
The attention of the Board and Management of Abia Hotel Limited, Umuahia has been drawn to a statement credited to the Honourable Commissioner for Information, Chief Okey Kanu, alleging that the Hotel is an “abandoned property” and that the Government of Abia State is engaged in an “advanced recovery process” in respect thereof.
After an emergency meeting of the Board and Management, we are constrained—res ipsa loquitur—to place the facts before the public in order to set the record straight.
- That the assertion of abandonment is false, malicious and made in bad faith. The Hotel is not a derelict edifice, neither is it a carcass of history lying in ruins. It is a living, breathing enterprise, open to the public, hosting guests, employing 52 Abians directly and many more indirectly, as well as 10 NYSC members and discharging its business obligations appropriately. To call it “abandoned” is akin to calling a tree in full blossom a stump in the desert.
- Abia Hotel Limited is a joint venture, lawfully constituted and operational. The Government of Abia State is not the sole owner thereof; the proprietary interests in the Hotel are the subject of binding contractual arrangements which can not be dissolved by executive fiat or public innuendo. As the law teaches, pacta sunt servanda—agreements are to be kept.
- Currently, there are ongoing cordial engagements between the Management of the Hotel and the Government of Abia State. To therefore describe the enterprise as “recoverable property” is to throw sand into the very soup one intends to eat, an act both counter-productive and injurious.
- That the statement credited to the Honourable Commissioner is reckless, unfriendly, and capable of inflicting grave reputational injury on the Hotel. The commercial lifeblood of any hospitality business is goodwill; to assail that goodwill with an unfounded declaration of abandonment is to cut off the branch upon which the business and the government alike must sit.
- That the Hotel is lawfully under a twenty-five(25) year lease with Certificate of Occupancy for ninety nine (99) years on behalf of its owners. The title is secure, subsisting, and enforceable; and no amount of rhetorical fireworks can extinguish that legal reality.
- That the Management applauds the ongoing development efforts of the present administration under His Excellency, Dr. Alex Otti, in contrast to the suffocating policies of the immediate past administration which, like weeds choking a field, did everything possible to frustrate the flourishing of this enterprise.
- That the Management remains willing to collaborate and cooperate with the Government of Dr. Alex Otti to move Abia State forward. As the Igbo adage wisely counsels: “A man does not burn down his homestead to prove his strength.” The progress of Abia State requires synergy, not sabotage; partnership, not poisonous rhetoric.
In the circumstances, the Board and Management of Abia Hotel Limited respectfully urge the public to discountenance the unfortunate statement made on behalf of the Government. Like a shadow that cannot eclipse the sun, falsehood cannot extinguish the truth of our existence, our operations, and our contribution to the economy of Abia State.
Signed:
Dr Patrick Ezenwaka
For:
Board and Management
Abia Hotel Limited, Umuahia
