By Emmanuel Obijuru
The sale of the pearl of the East Imo Concorde Hotel, by the Okorocha Administration, has left in its trail disenchantment by suppliers and contractors who have been dealing with the hotel.
Suppliers attached to the hotel were annoyed over non-payment for food and other items supplied to the hotel.
Imo Trumpeta gathered that this attracted the ire of the suppliers who had the previous day sent text messages to some media organizations to cover its planned protest scheduled for yesterday within the Concorde premises, New Owerri.
The protest was said to have been scuttled when the new management of the hotel got wind of it and decided to opt for a meeting with the suppliers.
The meeting was held in one of the offices of the hotel, as newsmen who converged at the premises of the hotel were barred from covering the event.
A source at the meeting revealed that several issues, including the debt owned the suppliers were amicably discussed.
Meanwhile, Commissioner of Culture and Tourism, Barr. Ugochi Nnanna Okoro, averted what would have been a major embarrassment to the state government when she met with the suppliers of the Imo Concorde Hotel who were planning on staging a public protest against what they claimed was the non payment of their entitlements.
In a meeting she held with the angry suppliers, the Commissioner absolved the present state government of any blame in the non payment of their entitlements. She stated that most of the backlogs of payments were incurred by past administrations.
She explained that she would have met with them earlier but was not able to do that due to the presence of the Good Governance Team inImoState, and promised them that she will do everything in her power to ensure that they are paid.
The Commissioner advised those of them whose names are not in the list of suppliers to be paid to go to the hotel management and get their names written down so that they will be paid with others.
Speaking to the Imo Trumpeta, some of the suppliers lamented that they have been owned millions of naira for up to two years now which no efforts made by the hotel management to pay them.
They pleaded with the state governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha and the Commissioner of Culture and Tourism, Barr Ugochi Nnanna Okoro to live up to their promises and pay them their due entitlements.
