The management of Bintoo Hotel Limited, a prominent five star hotel located at Prince Akinwunmi Adeniyi Street, G.R.A Extension, Sagamu, Ogun State, has condemned the recent unauthorized invasion of the hotel, unlawfully destroying of properties and illegal arrest of guests by officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), describing it as the infringement of guests’ fundamental rights and significant damage of properties estimated to be worth millions of naira.
The hotel’s management in response to the invasion of the hotel, expressed shock that a responsible federal agency like EFCC would resort to jungle method in the discharge of her responsibilities.
Narrating on how the EFCC operatives invaded the property, the hotel manager, Mr Adebisi Isiaka said: “At exactly 1:17 a.m in the midnight, some buses and patrol vans just came in and dropped some people at the gate of the hotel, and immediately one of them jumped the fence inside the compound carrying a sledgehammer. He proceeded to break the padlock of the gate and the remaining of them came inside and parked. Because the CCTV captured them when they jumped the fence and broke the gate, they started dismantling all our CCTV camera machines. They held all the staff outside hostage and asked us for master card keys.
Isiaka, who described the actions of the EFCC personnel as worse than an armed robbery attack, said that despite cooperating with the personnel who invaded the property by handing over master keys, they chose to damage all the doors with a sledgehammer, which was described by the hotel management as criminal act.
“We gave them the master card to open the door but they didn’t use the master card, instead they used a sledgehammer to break all the doors and brought all the lodgers outside.”
“They now asked them who got the car or okada (motorbikes), so they now collected the keys from all of them. They now went inside the reception and looked for the key to the Range Rover vehicle parked in the compound and drove it away. Even our policemen attached to the property were talking to them but they did not answer them,” he narrated.
The management, however, assured the public that a comprehensive investigation into the matter was underway as the EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, had ordered a stop to night raids by personnel of the agency.
Emphasising the hotel’s commitment to pursuing the case through all available legal means within the framework of Nigerian law to address the grievances arising from the incident, the hotel management asked why the operatives, despite having a master card to open the doors, chose to damage all the doors and other things without any confrontation.
“They didn’t have proof of any target suspect or anything. They pointed gun at us, we were terrorized as they stormed the hotel with more than 20 gun welding officers, and start beating everybody in sight, seize the master key and start breaking every doors to forcefully gain access to all the rooms, and arresting people, addings that the operatives operated as though they were on a mission to spoil the image of the hotel, lamenting that the hotel suffered a loss of more than N50 million as a result of the invasion”, one of the eye witness who escaped the arrest said.
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“Bintoo Hotel Limited vowed to rectify any lapses and make amends for any damages resulting from the unfortunate occurrence.
“To reassure patrons and stakeholders, the hotel management affirmed that its operations would continue without interruption.
“Additionally, they pledged to implement enhanced security measures aimed at preventing similar incidents from occurring in the future, thereby safeguarding the welfare and interests of all clients,” the statement read.