There is disquiet in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, following the sealing of two hotels and a filling station belonging to some politicians by security operatives.
According to The Punch newspaper, a tactical unit had sealed the premises and arrested scores, including some members of staff of the affected companies.
They include Preray Hotel at Eagle Island owned by Ikechi Chinda, Mega Tool filling station owned by Chinyere Igwe and Prissy’s Lounge operated by Jones Ogbonda.
The companies are reportedly owned by associates of a former deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Austin Opara.
Opara, a former ally of the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, is no longer in the latter’s good books for allegedly hobnobbing with the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party Atiku Abubakar.
The development is coming weeks after the governor in a state broadcast alleged that some politicians were recruiting cultists and ex-convicts to destabilize the state to further their 2023 political ambitions.
Though the reason for the sealing of the hotels and filling states’ action could not be ascertained as of the time of filing this report, it was alleged to be an onslaught against perceived political opponents of the governor.
In the said broadcast captured in a statement by Kelvin Ebiri, media aide to the governor, Wike said the state government was aware that owners of hotels and entertainment centres were in the process of giving out their premises to politicians and political parties as a convenient base for the gathering of political thugs across the state.
But a member of the House of Representatives, whose falling station was sealed, Chinyere Igwe, attributed the governor’s action to politics.