PAUL ORUDE BAUCHI
Nigerian Hotel Association, NHA, has condemned the lynching of a
security guard, Sunday Joshua, at New Trafford Hotel and Suites,
Bauchi, some days ago, over a missing phone.
Bauchi State police command has arrested five suspects, including the
director of the hotel in connection with the killing of Joshua.
Addressing journalists at Obuna Royal Hotel, Bauchi, the National
President of the Association, Chief Eze Patrick Anyanwu, said
whosoever is found guilty of the gruesome murder of Joshua, should
face the music as the association would not condone any act of
criminality.
Anyanwu said the association had promptly visited the deceased family
a day after the murder to condole them.
“Then we didn’t get the correct information about what happened. We
heard from the family, the security personnel and from the horse’s
mouth and he confessed that he participated in beating the security
man. With the situation he is in, it showed he has done wrong and he
is in police cell,” he said.
The NHA president, who doubles as the State Chapter Chairman, said
they decided to break their silence after gathering information about
what happened.
He stressed that the association condemned the alleged involvement of
one of their members, the director of the hotel, in the alleged
beating of the deceased.
He assured the state government and the family of the deceased that
the association would never support what happened, debunking the
rumour that it was trying to bail him.
“One of our members has been arrested quite alright but at the initial
time we were watching because it involved a death. At the end of the
day we noticed that he participated in the beating, ” he said
“The association is not in support of what he did because as a
director of a hotel if you noticed something wrong in your hotel, you
are not supposed to lose your temper. Temper has cause a death.
Ideally he was supposed to blame somebody that did it but we heard
from various accounts that he participated in the beating. We noticed
that the Director soiled his hands and we resolved as an association
that we are not going to be part of it.
“What happened is condemnable and the executive as well as members of
the hotel industry disassociate ourselves from it. We are therefore
coming out to condemn it in totality and as for our member who is
police custody, if found guilty should be punished according to the
laws, not the leaders or innocent members of the association to be
punished,” he said.