Merry Home Hotels has been closed by authorities in Abia State following the inexplicable death and disappearance of several of its clientele.
While the body of an unidentified woman was retrieved from the facility, numerous more are said to have vanished with no information on their whereabouts.
The Commissioner of Information in Abia State, Dr Eze Chikamnayo, confirmed this to newsmen on Saturday in Umuahia, the state capital.
He said that the government’s intervention was necessitated by recurrent complaints of patrons dying or disappearing under suspicious circumstances on the premises of the hotel on the 7UP axis of Aba’s Ogbor Hill.
The most recent case, according to the commissioner, was the death of a woman who arrived with two young men and a baby in the afternoon of April 15, as evidenced by hotel CCTV footage.
He went on to say that the men left with the baby without the lady hours later, only for hotel management to break into the room at midnight and discover the lady dead and dismembered.
Chikamnayo claimed that the authorities have received reports of similar instances occurring within the hotel, particularly around the swimming pool.
He emphasized that no responsible government would stand by and watch criminal hotspots persist, and that the Okezie Ikpeazu-led administration would not enable such an atmosphere to flourish.
The police have arrested everyone suspected in the April 15 incident, according to the commissioner, and the hotel will remain closed in the meantime.
He claims that Abia is a no-go zone for ritualists and murderers, and that the government has zero tolerance for wrongdoing of any kind.
Chikamnayo warned that any hotel in the state that engages in such behavior would be shut down and the perpetrators brought to justice.
He also recommended parents to keep a close eye on their children’s movements in order to avoid falling prey to ritualists and other criminals.
The lady’s death was also confirmed by police in the state, who said they were working to apprehend and bring her killers to justice.
The body of the yet-to-be-identified lady has been deposited to a mortuary, according to Mr Geoffrey Ogbonna, the Police Public Relations Officer in Abia.
According to him, the matter is being handled by the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID), and locals are encouraged to assist the authorities by providing helpful information about the occurrence.