Date: 2016-10-14

Kwara Hotel, hotel workersStaff of Kwara Hotel, Ilorin have staged a demonstration against the alleged plan of the state government to transfer the management of the hotel to another company without being carried along by the government.

Chanting protest songs and carrying placards, the staff alleged that the new company to manage the hotel, Harmony Holdings came in the night to inform them of the takeover.

They wondered what would happen to the five months' salary arrears and other entitlements owed them.

The general secretary of the hotel and personal services, Gbenga Ishola and another protester from the National Union of Hotels, Akor Joseph, both argued that due process has not been followed in the planned takeover of the hotel.

They also said that several emoluments worth 300 million naira was to be paid to the workers who were yet to know their status and what would become of them after the purported takeover.

In his reaction, the Managing Director of Harmony Holdings, Tope Daramola, said that several meetings had been held with the staff on the plan to reposition the hotel which he said is now in a deplorable state.

He wondered how few of the staff could stop the takeover when the state government which owned the two establishments prefers Harmony Holdings to manage the hotel.

He said that he suspected that the protest could be the fifth columnist at work.