Abia Govt. to convert proposed new Govt. house into five-star hotel
Ogbonnaya Ikokwu, Umuahia
Abia State Commissioner for Information, Prince Okey Kanu, has said the state government will turn the proposed new Government House at Ogurube layout Umuahia into a five- star hotel.
He also revealed that a new governor’s office and lodge will be erected in the current Government House Complex.
Kanu who spoke on Thursday during a facility tour of the proposed new Government House with journalists debunked rumors that the current Government House was a rented apartment.
“And let me debunk another lie. Before now, they said that, that current Government House was a rented apartment. But it is not a rented apartment.
“That property was acquired, duly acquired by the state government, but those people who were in office before now were busy paying themselves rent from government coffers, deceiving the public that they were paying rent for a Government House” he said.
Kanu who conducted the tour sequel to controversies trailing Governor Alex Otti’s comments on the proposed new Government House project, said the facility the immediate past governor
claimed to have completed and commissioned is uninhabitable and was never meant to be a residential building.
This is against the claims by the immediate past administration in the state about the abandonment of the new Government House by Otti.
Kanu insisted that the complex lacks so many facilities to be called a Government House.
He said, “This place appears inhabitable. There are no wardrobes anywhere. Most of what we saw were just halls, empty halls
“Did anybody see any wardrobe in any of the floors? There were no wardrobes. So this place was never meant, at the initial, to be a residential house.
“And one begins to wonder, the person and persons that designed this so called Government House. One begins to wonder what they had in mind when they designed this kind of Government House and expected a Governor, to come and live in this kind of place”.
Prince Kanu emphasized that, just like the Otti stated few days ago, the building was not completed.
“And there is only the first floor that appears to have been finished. The rest of the floors were not finished”,
” Of course, when Dr. ALex Otti spoke about this Government House a few days ago, John Okiyi went to Arise, to as usual, spew falsehood.
“Almost everything he said was a lie. Now I brought you people (press men) here to see for yourselves and to confirm what Dr. Alex Otti said.
“You can see a lot of the places were not plastered, the elevator, non-installed. The whole place looks dangerous. if anybody missteps there, you can fall through the place to your death”, Prince Kanu stated .
The Commissioner said that the past administration quickly rushed down there and put up the structure as a ploy to deceive members of the public that it is a Government House.
“Granted, you will see a few furniture here. But that is as much as you can see. Nothing on the next floor.
“They misused the resources of the state to put up this gigantic edifice that is meant to achieve nothing, so to speak. This place is not habitable,”
He said that even the location of the building is a security risk as there are a lot of buildings around the complex and maintained that whatever Okiyi-kalu said as a refutal on Arise TV is lies meant to deceive Nigerians.
Kanu maintained that Otti, being a responsible governor would not allow waste and would never misuse the resources of Abians and enjoined Abians to discountenance the rantings of the opposition and sustain their support to Otti.