Bayelsa Creek Motels: Wasted state asset

Despite being a top choice back in the days for residents and persons who visited the city, the Bayelsa Creek Motels has long been abandoned and now lays in ruins. Daily Trust Saturday takes a look at what used to once be Bayelsa’s tourists pride.  Creek Motels, located at the heart of Yenagoa, the Bayelsa […]

Despite being a top choice back in the days for residents and persons who visited the city, the Bayelsa Creek Motels has long been abandoned and now lays in ruins. Daily Trust Saturday takes a look at what used to once be Bayelsa’s tourists pride. 

Creek Motels, located at the heart of Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, is one of the non movable assets inherited by Bayelsa, when it was carved out of the old Rivers State in 1996.

At the creation of the state, it served as the only viable hospitality outfit in the state capital.

Daily Trust Saturday gathered that the hotel, located adjacent to the Bayelsa Government House, the Federal Medical Centre, Area Command of the Nigeria Police Force as well as other places of interest in the state, served as accommodation to the pioneer leaders of the newly created state then.

Interestingly, government officials like commissioners as well as staff of multinational oil companies were taking shelter there as they were insufficient accommodation in the newly created state. Report has it that the pioneer military administrator of the state was accommodated there before the new governor’s lodge was built.

Despite its significant contribution to the tourism development of the state and its economic value to the state, 26 years after, the edifice is laying fallow with decaying infrastructures. Weeds have taken over the once beautiful edifice; it has since become a haven for reptiles and hoodlums.

It was gathered that from the administrations of late Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, Chief Timipre Sylva and to the first tenure of Senator Henry Seriake Dickson, the motel was operating optimally, until 2016 when the facility was shut down. 

Daily Trust Saturday gathered that during the administration of late Sir Melford Okilo in old Rivers State, the government decided to built catering rest houses in all the existing local government areas of the state. The Yenagoa local government Catering Rest House was later transformed to Creek Motels, and then a three-star hotel upon the creation of Bayelsa State to address the hospitality needs of the new state.

During the administration of Alamieyesigha, facilities in the hotel were upgraded, while a five-star hotel called “Tower Hotel” was developed at the Central business district of the state capital to serve as an annex of the hotel, with another branch of the facility, a three-star hotel also built at Swali area of Yenagoa. Both facilities are uncompleted and have also been abandoned.

 

The 90-room lodging Creek Motels was once the preferred hotel by businessmen, oil companies’ workers, top security personnel, politicians, among other clients, but today, it is just lying as a monument with infrastructures decayed and looted.

An indigene of the state and Secretary, Civil Liberty Organization (CLO), Bayelsa State Chapter, David-West Bekinwariy David, expressed displeasure over the state of the once popular Creek Motels.

He said though he may not know the reason the hotel was abandoned and later shut down by the state government, it was imperative for the incumbent governor, Senator Douye Diri, to revamp the facility in order to boost the revenue of the state and create employment for the people of the state.

According to him, Creek Motels, when it was functional, directly employed about 1000 youths.

“I don’t know if the hotel was no longer economical viable for the government, but the problem I have with that government’s decision is that before closing down Creek Motels, there’s supposed to be another hotel in place, maybe a five-star hotel to address the hospitality needs of the state.

“Again, when Creek Motels was functional, it gave employment to not less than 1,000 persons. Several Bayelsans were working there; from the gatemen, the house keepers to managers and directors of the hotel. When government shut down the hotel, there was nowhere to accommodate those people and they were jobless once again.

“Today, as we are talking, the place is inhabited by hoodlums who go there to do all manners of evil, and if you watch closely, that place is also close to the Government House, Federal Medical Centre, Police Area Command and other places of interest, so I don’t know how that place should be like that.

“Creek Motels belongs to the state government; it was an inheritance Bayelsa got from Rivers State at its creation as part of the immovable assets, should we allow it to rot away? I expect government to revamp it and put the place to use once again.”

A civil servant who was deployed to Bayelsa upon the creation of the state in 1996 expressed sadness over the current state of Creek Motels, saying the facility was the best and it helped the newly created state with accommodation need then.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said that hotel is the legacy of Sir Melford Okilo, and the Bayelsa State government was supposed to preserve it to boost the revenue of the state.

Last February, Bayelsa State House of Assembly passed a resolution urging the state government to revitalize the hotel in order to serve the tourism and hospitality needs of the state.

Member representing Kolokuma/Opokuma Constituency I, Hon. Tonye Isenah, who moved a motion at plenary, drew the state government’s attention to the predicament of the hotel, saying the situation was precarious.

He said: “Shortly after the Creek Motel was contracted out to foreigners to manage; it went moribund and subsequently closed down under circumstances that were not explained.

“Most worrisome is the fact that the once-popular Creek Motel has become a safe haven for criminals and all kinds of reptiles, not to talk of the significant loss of revenue to the state government as a result of its continued closure,” he said.

Supporting the motion, the lawmaker representing Ogbia Constituency 1, Mitema Obordor, noted that it was within the legislature’s power to institute a probe into the deplorable condition of the motel that also housed the first set of legislators and other top government functionaries after the creation of Bayelsa.

Other members who spoke on the motion observed that the state was grappling with infrastructure deficit and there was a need to maintain and upgrade facilities instead of abandoning them.

The House however passed a two-point resolution, calling on the state government to investigate the circumstances surrounding the collapse of the state-owned hotel.

When contacted to speak on government’s plans to revamp the moribund hotel, the Bayelsa State Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Dr. Itti Orugbani, directed Daily Trust Saturday reporter to the Ministry of Trade and Investment, saying the business aspect of government is being overseen by the ministry.

However, the Commissioner for Trade and Investment, Mr Federal Otokito, declined comment, he demanded for a written permission from the Commissioner for Information before he can speak.