By Dare Akogun
The Kwara State Government has given notice of shutting down, Kwara Hotels, the proposed venue of the Governorship debate for the 2023 general elections.
It would be recalled that the group organising the debate ‘Kwara Tabloid‘, an interactive platform for stakeholders in the state is billed to hold the first Governorship Debate at Kwara Hotels on Wednesday October 12, 2022.
It was gathered that the organizers had paid over one million naira for Hall A in the hotel for more than a month now and arrangements are at an advanced stage to ensure the event is successful.
It was further gathered that as of Sunday October 9, 2022, four governorship candidates in Kwara state for the 2023 election have formally given commitment to attending the debate.
The governorship candidates are Alhaji Shuaib Abdullahi Yaman People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Hakeem Lawal Social Democratic Party (SDP), Alhaji Yakub Gobir Young Progressive Party (YPP) and Prof Shuaib Oba AbdulRaheem of the New Nigeria People’s Party ( NNPP).
It can however not confirmed as at the time of this report if the governor and candidate of the All Progressive Congress, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq has signified intention to be available for the event.
However, the State Commissioner for Business, Innovation and Technology (BIT), Ibrahim Akaje in a statement issued on Sunday, said the shutdown is a forerunner to many interventions that will be done to bring the hotel back to life.
According to him, various Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government connected to the facility – including Harmony Holdings – are to meet to discuss modalities for the shutdown ahead of the facility renewals, the statement added.
According to the statement “The government has approved immediate shut down of the facility while rehabilitation and repositioning is done. A section of it had long become dilapidated and totally unusable. It therefore needs to be shut down for safety reasons.
“Further steps will be taken in phases to restore the glory of the hotel and return it to productivity,” Akaje said in the statement.
This development is coming hours after the state government announced placement of the Kwara Hotels and Cargo Terminal under the BIT Ministry — and a day after the government again had to intervene in the payment in the backlog of Kwara hotel staffs because of its inability to pay salaries and meet other obligations.
The Council had also directed that Ministries of Finance and Planning and Economic Development should henceforth make budgetary provisions for the repositioning of the hotel.
