The Ebonyi state government, Sunday said it would close down hotels, restaurants and drinking joints which aid criminals in the state.
Government alleged that the affected joints allowed criminals to hide in them to perpetrate evil. The state Commissioner for Border Peace and Conflict Resolution, Chief Stanley Okoro Emegha, stated this in a statement in Abakaliki.
He noted that hoodlums had formed the habit of hanging out in hotels, restaurants and joints till late night from where they come out to perpetrate crimes in the state capital. The statement read: “Sometimes, the proprietors of these joints are privy to thenefarious activities of these hoodlums without exposing their identitiesto security agents for possible arrest and prosecution, notwithstandingthe fact that the state government has been keeping close surveillanceon these joints for some time now. “Consequently, the state government has perfected arrangements to seal the affected joints if the said proprietors who are assumed to be partners in crime with the hoodlums fail to refrain themselves from such reprehensible acts. Incidentally, it is on record that landlords of such hotel proprietors will equally not be left out in the state government sealing order. “On the other hand, it has also been observed that some managers of Night clubs have shamelessly allowed some of their teeming customers to parade retinue of minors and under-age youth, especially teenage girls below the age of 18 years, who usually indulge in all manner of immoral lifestyle at awkward hours of the night without recourse to state government attitudinal change campaign.
“Henceforth, the state government will not hesitate to revoke the right of occupancy of any landlord or penalise any hotel manager for condoning such immoral conduct that seemingly tend to compromise the future of Ebonyi youth. To be forewarned is to before harm,” it stated.
