No fewer than five (5) staff of state owned Kwara Hotels Limited above age 50 have been technically sacked by the government of Gov. AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, while about sixty (60) others are to report to the Kwara state Road Traffic Management Agency (KWARTMA), against the initial pledge of the government to redeploy them to the Hotel’s parent Ministry (Business, Innovation and Technology).
This is coming days after Fresh Insight reported that staff of Kwara Hotel decried non-deployment to the ministry and nonpayment of their salaries as promised by the Kwara state government.
The state government via a statement by the state Commissioner for Business, Innovation and Technology (BIT) Ibrahim Akaje, had announced the shutdown of the popular Kwara Hotel, located along Ahmadu Bello Way, Ilorin, on 10th October, 2022, with a promise that the staffers have been redeployed to the ministry.
However, impeccable source told Fresh Insight that Kwara Hotel staff has been directed to report at KWARTMA with immediate effect.
According to a message by the Acting General Manager (Admin), Mashood Alaro at about 12:26pm today, on the Hotel’s Staff WhatsApp group, the State government approve transfer of Kwara hotel staff to KWARTMA.
The message reads, “Urgent information please!!! Kindly be informed that the Kwara state Government has approved the transfer of service of Kwara Hotel staff to KWATMA (sic). Please you are to come to KWATMA (sic) office today for Documentation. Kindly come with your Qualification and your last appointment letter.”
Fresh Insight investigation revealed that staff of the Hotel are not happy about the development, lamenting over the inability of Gov. AbdulRazaq’s government to keep to its promises to them.
Some of the staffers also told Fresh Insight in confidence, that there are insinuations that the Governor specifically instructed that the transferred staff from Kwara Hotel should be put on the streets.
“You can imagine the government ordering our transfer to KWARTMA, against the promise to transfer us to ministry.
“We also heard they said we should be put on the street to control traffic. That is cruel. We have senior staff among us who have worked for almost two decades at Kwara hotel, it’s unfortunate the government feels our experience is best suitable on the roads”, our source said.
“This is authoritarian. Unlike those transferred from Kwara Express who were given option of choosing whether to be transferred to Ministry or KWARTMA, we were not even consulted. They rather coerced us. Now, they said nothing for staff who are not willing to join KWARTMA and those above recruitment age at KWARTMA”, another staff said.
As at 2:30pm today, this medium confirmed that some of the affected staff are already at KWARTMA, in line with the directive issued to them by the government.
