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By Nelly Okpakpor

Lovely Palace Hotel and Suites, Agbor-Obi, Ika South Local Government Area of Delta State, became the opposite of its name as the manager, when asked to present his approved building plan, caused pandemonium when he brandished a gun at officials of the Delta State Ministry of Urban Renewal.

This was the fallout of a recent development control exercise carried out by the ministry which took its officials to Agbor.

Led by Deputy Director of Town Planning, TPL Charles Egba, who represented the Permanent Secretary, Dr. (Mrs.) Charity Ehimen, the team from Asaba was accompanied by area planning officers in Agbor to visit various building sites at Convent and Dr. White streets, as well as Agbor-Obi and other areas. In many of the places visited, the team served verification notices or ‘stop work’ orders, where necessary.

However, at Lovely Palace Hotel and Suites, Agbor-Obi, the management resorted to intimidation and harassment of the ministry’s officials in the course of their duties.

While the officials were at the hotel premises, no staff came out to inquire about the reason for their visit, but as soon as the team left for Asaba, TPL Egba got a telephone call threatening to deal with him and his team members should they ever show their faces at the hotel.

The caller, who identified himself as the owner of the hotel, asked Egba and his team members to be grateful that they had left before his arrival. The call confirmed that he had seen the verification notice pasted at the hotel but was only interested in extracting Egba’s phone number, through which he threatened the team.

In response to the reported threats against the team, the Permanent Secretary, Dr. (Mrs.) Charity Ehimen, led the team back to Agbor so as to do the needful should the man remain recalcitrant.

On getting there, the man identified as the manager of the hotel, continued his verbal threats and thereafter deployed hoodlums to force the team out of the hotel premises, while brandishing a gun at them.

In a swift response, however, men of the Nigeria Police were able to overpower and arrest the hoodlums and their alleged sponsor.

It was learnt that several requests by area planning officers in Agbor to the hotel to produce its building plan had fallen on deaf ears as the owner was reported to have boasted that he didn’t need the government’s approval to build on his land.

Reacting, the Permanent Secretary, Dr. Ehimen, reiterated that no one was above the law, saying that the ministry would not be deterred by the hostility of errant developers in carrying out the mandate given to it by the state government to ensure that development was carried out in a such manner that allowed for the renewal of urban centres across the state.