Police arrest owner of collapsed Ebonyi hotel

The Ebonyi State Police Command has arrested Christian Akanihu, the owner of Metro View Hotel which collapsed in Abakaliki on Wednesday night.

The arrest was facilitated by an assistant to the state governor on infrastructural maintenance, Ali Odefa.

Mr Odefa said the state government will conduct integrity test on all public buildings in Abakaliki.

More than 60 persons escaped death when a wing of the popular Metro View Hotel collapsed.

The hotel, which is located close to Presco Campus of Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, collapsed on Wednesday evening, around 7 p.m.

Following the collapse, the Abakaliki Capital Territory Development Authority sealed the 26-room hotel on Thursday morning.

The special assistant to the governor, David Umahi, on capital territory, Ejem Okoro, led the team that sealed the hotel.

He said the hotel would remain sealed pending investigation by the government.

The hotel, PREMIUM TIMES gathered, was commissioned on May 2005 by a former governor, Martin Elechi .

A member of the hotel management, Autsine Orji, who spoke to journalists on behalf of the company, said they had noticed a crack on some of the pillars holding the building and they immediately cordoned off the side of the building and whilst they began renovations.

“It was in the process of the renovation that the building collapsed.”

Mr Orji said those who lodged in the hotel were outside the building for a seminar when the incident happened, stressing that no life was lost.

A number of building have been collapsing in different parts of Nigeria, the latest being the building that collapsed in Jos on Monday evening at Dilimi Area of Jos North Local Government Area in Plateau.

A total of 14 people died from the Jos incident while four were injured.