Gateway Resort Ota: Multimillion funding rots, homes rodents as Daniel, Amosun’s chilly conflict ruins Ogun legacy mission

DAUD OLATUNJI writes about the current state of devastation of the Gateway Hotel Ota, which was once the pride of Ogun State, due to a political war between the state’s gladiators

Despite its strategic location and proximity to Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub, the Gateway Hotel Ota, one of three hotels established by the late former Ogun State Governor Chief Olabisi Onabanjo, has been abandoned and is currently in ruins.

The Gateway Hotel, Ota, is less than 100 meters from the old Sango toll booth, a place that serves as the border between the states of Lagos and Ogun. The once magnificent building is on the right hand side as you come to Sango from Lagos.

The government of Onabanjo, who was the state’s first democratically elected governor between October 1979 and December 1983, built three hotels in the 1980s while standing on the platform of the dissolved Nigerian Unity Party to ensure the even distribution of wealth in Ogun. to demonstrate state.

The administration had located the hotels in the state’s three Senate districts – Egba, Yewa / Awori and Ijebu.

The hotel for Ijebu was in Ijebu-Ode and has now become the Equity Resort Hotel; the one for Egba is located in the Kuto area of ​​the state capital Abeokuta and became the Park Inn by Radisson, while that for Yewa / Awori remains the Gateway Hotel Ota on the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway.

The results show that the Gateway Hotel, Ota, is the largest of the three with 350 rooms and suites.

The three were built as five star hotel complexes with first class facilities. They had beautiful landscapes, Olympic swimming pools, conference rooms, event halls, tennis courts, and shopping malls.

After a few years, the management of Otunba Gbenga Daniel awarded the three hotels to private investors as concessions for 25 years between 2003 and 2011.

Daniel claimed the facilities were licensed because they were operating at a loss. He complained that only N27m of the three hotels had been built since they were founded.

Eight years later, the Ibikunle Amosun government, which was in the saddle from 2011 to 2019, set up a judicial commission of inquiry to investigate the state properties that had been sold or granted as concessions by its predecessor.

The report of the commission was published by the state government in February 2012. It has been determined that the Gateway Hotel, Ota, has been given a concession to MIDC Limited and has been sublet to ARTEE Industries Limited.

The report added that the concessionaire took over in 2009 with a promise to complete the refurbishment of the facility within 18 months but allegedly did nothing after two and a half years.

While he was implementing the recommendations of the commission, Amosun canceled the concession.

Unfortunately, the current situation of the hotel shows that apart from the fact that the massive building stands in a jungle of overgrown weeds and trees, the entire building has become dilapidated.

Some of the luxury items, including the decorative lights in the hallways and conference rooms, have been looted.

A former hotel employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there was nothing left in the building to remember what it used to be like.

He said all appliances, windows and doors, including their frames, as well as air conditioners and fans were gone.

The hotel’s cinema area has become a dusty, dark room with no relics of its original state.

It was also found that villains had taken away every valuable item they could get their hands on since the building was left to decay and became an open space for everyone.

A native of Ota, Kayode Taiwo, told our correspondent that the hotel was founded in 1982 by the late Onabanjo and had 350 rooms and an Olympic-size swimming pool.

According to him, the hotel had a main banquet hall, three conference halls, movie theaters, a shopping mall, a penthouse, a parking lot for over 1,000 vehicles and two power generators.

“Gateway Hotel, Ota is strategically located on the hilly side of the Ota-Lagos border near the popular Ilo-Awela River,” he said.

Taiwo said the dying facility has a general manager, a food and beverage manager, an administrative manager, a finance / accounts manager, and engineering and corporate affairs departments.

“Historically, the hotel was strategically located to allay the excitement of the Ota people over their application to merge with Lagos State,” added Taiwo.

Speaking of what the Ota people had lost to the mismanagement of the building, Taiwo said, “The hotel, at its height, provided huge economic platforms for small businesses, theatrical productions, and film productions, including musicals.

“It also offered employment to young people in and around Ota.

“The Gateway Hotel, as a building, offered nice aesthetic value for the area and was a huge place for tourism.

“The services offered during the festivals include relaxation, swimming, fitness and performances by artists were regular excursions for corporate and individual guests.

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“Commercial value chain for small and large retailers in relation to the supply of beverages, agricultural products, dry cleaning services and horticulture, among others.”

A former CEO of Gateway Holdings Limited, Gboyega Isiaka, defended the Daniel administration, saying the concessionaire MIDC, which acquired the Ota hotel, was not fully prepared.

He said, “The situation with the Gateway Hotel, Ota, is that the concessionaire who got the space wasn’t as well prepared as the other two locations.

“We found out before we left office and gave him a letter telling him to do certain things or that we should cancel the concession, and we agreed what would be done there; we have also issued a warning. ”

Isiaka announced that due to MIDC’s inability to raise funds for the project, the concessionaire has entered into an agreement with Gateway Holdings and ARTEE Industries Limited, the owners and operators of the famous Park ‘n’ Shop brand.

He said that ARTEE Industries Limited has been granted a development lease for a term of 23 years minus three days, which means that the MIDC has granted the unexpired term in relation to an area of ​​approximately 2,153 hectares for a shopping mall.

Isiaka explained, “What happened to the Gateway Hotel, Ota, is exactly the same as the Gateway Hotel, Abeokuta and the Gateway Hotel, Ijebu-Ode. It is a concession process that I am proud of to this day, despite what happened at this location (Gateway Hotel Ota).

“Even the day I appeared in court, I told them I was proud of what we did there. Yes, there might be a thing or two that probably should have been postponed or done better; there will always be something like that.

“I’m proud of the concession process and I can say it anywhere, even if the former governor’s (Ibikunle Amosun) false accusation against me was about this hotel; I’ve been to the EFCC; I went there alone and spent most of a day with them; I can stand in front of anyone and say that I am proud of the concession process.

“Unfortunately, another government came when we left our office. It is up to that government to manage the process. So, all these stories that it was us who sold the hotel for a cheap price are nonsense. ”

Regarding the current government’s plans for the dying hotel, Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Dr. Oluwatoyin Taiwo that Dapo Abiodun’s government has started looking for real investors.

He confirmed that the place had been messed up due to neglect by the previous administration.

The commissioner said: “When we got into the department that oversees most of the hospitality industry in the state, we were given the responsibility by the governor to visit most of the attractions and most of the properties we sell under our jurisdiction and jurisdiction as the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

“You might be interested to know that the Gateway Hotel, Ota, was one of the places we went to.

“We sent the director of tourism development and promotion and some of his staff to tell us what is happening, even though we know the public opinion. The government has not stopped what it wanted to do and now decided to go there to see for itself the state of affairs. They brought their report back.

“We found that the administration after Otunba Gbenga Daniel’s did nothing about it and as a result we found that many of the facilities there were being carted away; They left this place dying and practically all of the equipment that was there was carted away.

“We don’t know who did that and then the environment, only God knows how many years it has been abandoned, has become hooligans and we have learned that some Hausa / Fulani have started to inhabit the area.”

Speaking of the Abiodun administration’s plans for the facility, Taiwo said, “When we received the report, our plan as the government is to make sure we revive it to do better than what we met on the ground, and…” also ensure that we develop it to a level that is appealing and can compete with most of the five-star hotels in the world.

“In the course of this, the government tries to reach out to every private organization that is willing to take over this, the hand of the community, so that at least at the end of the day we can reach an agreement through the MoU, so that we can hand it over to them it comes back to life and revived at the end of the day.

“Our plan is to make sure we give a private organization a chance to get in; there is potential that the government is looking for an investor willing to take it on; So that’s the government’s stance on this property. ”

On the question of whether the investor had been selected, the Commissioner said: “At the moment there are deliberations and some other things going on. But as we speak, there hasn’t been an investor who has signed this property.

“We have an agency that takes care of it – Ogun Invest. It is an agency that has the responsibility to shake hands with investors and potential investors. ”

Several attempts to get responses from those serving in Amosun’s government have failed.

Former Trade, Commerce and Industry Commissioner Bimbo Ashiru said he did not want to comment on the issue in order not to be misunderstood.

Former Amosun Information Commissioner Dayo Adeneye was unavailable at the time of filing this report. At the time this report was sent, the officer did not respond to an SMS on his phone.

Taiwo Adeoluwa, the former secretary of the state government during the Amosun administration, had also not responded to a text message sent to him at the time this report was sent.

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