Governor Ayade performs groundbreaking for five star hotel, others
Cross River State Governor Senator (Prof.) Ben Ayade on Thursday performed the groundbreaking ceremony of a five-star hotel complex in Calabar.
The project which is private sector driven is facilitated by Manoj Jagtiani, the Chief Executive officer of Indigo Hotels whom the governor has no doubt will not only boost tourism but as well create employment for the people. He said that Cross River State will continue to create a conducive environment for private investments in the state.
Mr. Jagtiani described the hotel as iconic and defines Calabar as a beautiful and outstanding city hence he thought it necessary to invest in Cross River State. Governor Ayade appealed to the management of Indigo Hotels to stick to the seven months completion deadline of the project site along the Murtala Muhammed Highway in Calabar.
Earlier in his speech, Mr. Jagtiani, a Sri Lankan said the management of Indigo Hotels was grateful to the governor for allowing the company to expand its business to Cross River State. He said he choose to invest in Cross River State because of its hospitality, it’s warmth, and friendly people as the safest state and a tourism destination in Nigeria.
Already, Indigo Hotels has branches in Abuja and Lagos and now expanding its frontiers to other major cities and states in Nigeria.
But in a swift reaction, a social critic and a Cross Riverian who spoke to LENS reporter on condition of anonymity on Friday had reservations over the venture arguing that instead of the governor bringing investors to resuscitate and manage the moribund hospitality and business investments like Tinapa and Obudu Ranch Resort, he instead choose to go on a wild goose chase which may not materialize at the end of the day being in the winding down period of his tenure. He described the project as dead on arrival going by the many failed adventures by the Ayade administration including the Bakassi Deep Sea Port, superhighway, and other white elephant projects.
In another development, the Chief Press Secretary to the government, Mr. Christian Ita has debunked the report by some media houses (not LENS Newspapers-on, offline) that a section of the Government House has been gutted by fire. In a recent press release, Ita said there was no fire incident in the Cross River State Governor’s office in Calabar.
The press release signed by Christian Ita who doubles as Special Adviser Media and Publicity to Governor Ben Ayade said “There was a small fire incident on a Telecom Mast within the premises of the Cross River Geographic Information Agency (CRGIA) which shares a fence with the Governor’s office which attracted sensational and misleading report on social media and hence wish to state without equivocation that no fire incident occurred at Governor Ayade office and any report to the contrary should please be disregarded by the general public”.
By: Archibong Emmanuel
(Snr. Reporter)
