In the early hours of Friday, security operatives sealed a hotel, bar and a filling station in Port Harcourt, while some people, including staff of the facilities were arrested.
This is coming after days after Governor Nyesom Wike’s state-wide broadcast where he alleged that some politicians were recruiting cultists and ex-convicts to destabilise the state over their 2023 political ambitions.
The facilities sealed are Preray Hotel at Eagle Island, Priscy’s Bar in Elekahia and Mega Tool Filling Station along Ojoto Street in the Diobu axis, all in the Rivers State capital.
It was gathered that the sealed facilities are owned by loyalists to a former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon Austin Opara, who is a former ally of Wike.
In a statement by Wike’s media aide, Kelvin Ebiri, the governor said the government was aware that owners of hotels and entertainment centres are in the process of giving out their premises to politicians and political parties as a convenient base for the gathering of “political thugs”.
The statement partly read, “Similarly, we will not allow any political party, be it the All Progressives Congress, the Peoples Democratic Party or the Social Democratic Party to threaten the safety and security of lives and property during the campaigns with mayhem, thuggery or violence.
“Accordingly, we have already alerted and set the security agencies on the trail of these misguided politicians and leaders of political parties and stop them in their tracks with the full weight of the law.”
The governor warned that the government will pull down hotels and other entertainment places that are linked with such criminal political activities.
The state police command is yet to address the issue.