2023: Kwara Govt Shuts Down Venue of Governorship Debate
By Oyewale Oyelola
Kwara State Government on Sunday shut down, Kwara Hotels the venue of Governorship debate for 2023 general elections.
FactualTimes gathered that Kwara Tabloid, an interactive platform for stakeholders in the state is billed to hold first Governorship Debate at Kwara Hotels on Wednesday October 12, 2022.
Our reports that the organizers had paid over one million naira for Hall A in the hotel for over one month.
As of Sunday October 9, 2022, four governorship candidates in Kwara 2023 have formally gave commitment to attend the debate.
The governorship candidates are Alhaji Shuaib Abdullahi Yaman (PDP), Hakeem Lawal (SDP), Alhaji Yakub Gobir (YPP) and Prof Shuaib Oba AbdulRaheem.
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.
“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 comes 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 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.
