The recently appointed Imo State female Commissioner for Gender and Vulnerable Affairs, who is from Ideato South LGA Hon. Mrs.Nkechinyere Ugwu is currently in trouble over alleged missing of two Electricity generating Sets, one 850 KVA (Comis) and 1000 KVA (Pekkis) I belonging to the Hotels.
Mrs Ugwu who doubles as the Chairman of Imo Concorde Hotels and Casino Ltd, board of directors was also accused of diverting money paid by the organizers of a recent Seminar for the Local Government Area Stakeholders into her private pocket, a situation that has left the hospitality industry in a cold war with some management staff grumbling openly against her friend infracts.
Meanwhile, the State leading hospitality and tourism industry and one of the well articulated, unbeatable legacies of the foremost Nigerian Elder Statesman and the former governor of old Imo State, chief Samuel Onunaka Mbakwe (Ph.D) of blessed memory, has been left to decay and rot as a result of continuous appointments of politicians as its top management team.
It was reported that those without sound knowledge of hospitality industry were the ones eventually appointed by the past government of Emeka Ihedioha to manage the Hotels.
It would be recalled that the services of the Hotels under the past Military Administrators were more edifying, proficient and accountable than during the present democratic dispensations as some of the past State governors used the Hotels for political settlements of their stooges and cronies thereby turning the Hotels to a shelter for harboring their political associates who often obtain free lodging permit under the guise of working for the government in power.
This ugly trend was almost halted by the former governor of Imo State, Owelle Rochas Okorocha who concessioned the property to a foreign investor for an optimal utilization and effective management of both human and infrastructural facilities in the Hotels before it was truncated by the Ihedioha’s short term and ill conceived administration in the State.
Imolites had believed that the cumbent governor of the State, Distinguished Senator Hope Uzodimma change the story and bring back the lost glory of the facilities.The story has remained in the affirmative as Imo people have recorded another heap of mess up which is ravaging under the watch of Hon. Mrs Nkechinyere Ugwu who combined her duties as the Imo State Commissioner For Gender and Vulnerable Affairs and the Chairman Concorde Hotels Management Committee.
Meanwhile, Concorde Hotels under governor Hope Uzodimma, after setting up the committee to manage the affairs of the Hotels also within a short time recapped its decision by announcing that the property has been concessioned to a reputable American based Company, Marriot. This is the jinx that break the camel’s back that caused the rising of the Hotels Management insubordination, non challants , gross negligence and lackadaisical attitude to work while Hon. Mrs Ugwu use her office in the Hotels as a rest place after her Ministerial duties as a Serving Commissioner.
Sources revealed that some of the staffers of the Hotels are currently busy vandalizing, carting away valuables and alleged stolen major kitchen utensils belonging to the Hotels.
“As it stands today, the company is yet to take over the management of the Hotels, and since that announcement, the Hotel is seriously under a threat and abused by Mrs Ugwu led Committee who not only abandoned the Hotels, but has left the premises in darkness and unkempt only to receive money from guests mostly those on seminars without remittance to the genuine accounts”, the source revealed.
This Newspaper gathered that the Hotels’ lifts are currently a death trap as guests have started deserting the government owned hospitality industry “we are being owned five months salaries, we also observed a low turnout of customers due to poor services. The swimming pool has long been abandoned. People are afraid of lodging in Concorde Hotels because of negligence by the management. We have no much drinks in the bars so there is nothing to sell”, impeccable source from Concorde Hotels lamented.
Effort to reach the Chairman of Imo Concorde Hotels and Casino, Hon. Mrs Nkechinyere Ugwu was unsuccessful as her cell phone number rang severally without response.She did not also reply text message sent to her.
