Shiroro Hotel: down and out

Once the jewel of the hospitality industry in Niger State, Shiroro Hotel is now in ruins. It is heavily indebted, its premises sealed off for decades of tax default amid swirling charges of fraud. Among other things, the skeletal security team on the ground is also threatening to walk away. JUSTINA ASISHANA reports

In its heyday, Shiroro Hotel, one of the Sardauna’s legacies in the North, was among the top five hotels in Niger State. It offered unique accommodation and excellent service to travelers, and was among the recommended hotels by travel agents for tourists and visitors.

Situated in Minna, the capital city of Niger State, the hotel boasted a restaurant, bar and a shopping mall while each room was furnished with an air conditioner, polished furniture fittings, a flat screen TV and a well-designed suite bathroom.

However, all these are in the past as the famous Shiroro Hotel has gone down and become moribund, apart from being sealed by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) for nonpayment of tax, all the staff of the hotel have been sent packing and activities have ceased in the hotel. Shiroro Hotel is now a shadow of its glorious days.

A recent visit to the hotel revealed how it is now a ghost of itself, with dried and unkempt  leaves and grasses while all of the service rooms have been deserted as business operators in the have packed their baggage and left.

There have been accusations and counter accusations as to how the hotel was run down with the state government fingering the hotel Managers (Arewa Hotel) while the hotel managers are blaming the government for being among the hotel’s top patrons who did not pay for services they enjoyed at the facility.

While all these were going on, the hotel was shut down by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) for nonpayment of tax while The Nation learnt that the Managers had not made any returns to the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) for over 22 years. It is said that the hotel’s tax debt profile is in millions of Naria.

The staff of the hotel are not left out in the fight as it was learnt that the staff have taken the managers to court after three years of nonpayment of salaries.

The Niger State government has accused the management of Shiroro Hotel of mismanaging N98 million given by the government to clear the debts of the hotel; the managers were also accused of using the hotel to enrich themselves.

The Niger State Commissioner of Culture and Tourism, Daniel Sunday Kolo confirmed that the government has revoked the agreement between Shiroro Hotel and Arewa Hotels, pointing out that managers of Arewa Hotel had been using Shiroro Hotel as a conduit pipe to enrich themselves.

He noted that the government had the right to revoke the agreement because it is the single largest shareholder of the company.

“Niger State government has shares in Shiroro Hotel; Shiroro Hotel is run by the board of directors and is a limited liability company but as the single largest shareholder, the government had the opportunity to be the chairman of the board of Directors.

“The Board met and discovered that the managers were mismanaging the hotels and have mismanaged it for a long time. The Board also discovered that the way Arewa Hotels was running the hotel was very bad”

The Commissioner further confirmed that the government gave Arewa Hotel N98 million which the managers alleged was the debt the government owed the hotel.

“When this government came on board, Arewa Hotel alleged the government was owing the hotel N96 million, which was paid by the government, and barely some months later Federal Inland Revenue Service sealed the hotel for nonpayment of tax.

“We wonder what the N96 million was used for especially as staff are still being owed salaries. Unfortunately, no concrete reason was given by the managers on how the money was spent.”

Another problem awaits the hotel as the security staff employed to guard the hotel and its properties are threatening to down tools if they are not paid the salaries they are owed.

When The Nation visited the hotel in Minna, she met with the second in charge of security who identified himself as Danjuma Mohammed and confirmed the hotel had been closed for two years as no activity had been going on since its closure.

“I was employed to oversee the security of the place since it was sealed. We were employed by government under the ministry of tourism. I know the place was sealed because the management did not pay tax. When they sealed it, everyone doing business here packed out.”

He complained that the security personnel had not been paid for over five months and it is affecting them seriously.

“For five months now, government has not paid us; we have made a lot of complaints to which they promise us but we see nothing. We need our salary because they employed us to secure this place, we are doing our part, the government should also do their part and pay us.”

One of the security staff, a lady called Grace listed the repercussion should they down tools and leave the hotel unprotected.

“We will leave if they do not pay us,” she said. “If we were not here, a lot of things would have gone missing. Most times, people come from nowhere to claim a property or two and will want to take the property like fridges, chairs, tables, air conditioners amongst others but we refuse them. We are trying our best to secure this place but the government is not helping matters.”

Grace further disclosed that the light to the hotel had been cut off while the torchlights provided for them are no longer working, making it difficult for some of them who are on night duty to operate.

“But we are trying our best”, she said. “We are not trying to boast but we can say that we have kept this hotel from vandals and illegal activities. If we should leave here today, just for 30 minutes, every property in the hotel will be gone. Government should put this in mind.”

For Peter, another security man, the salary has to be paid in order to keep his home.

“My wife has told me that if I cannot bring money home to feed her, she will leave me, she followed me here and started shouting, it was my colleagues that begged her and calmed her down. I want this salary paid, then if they don’t want us again, we will go but they should pay us first.

“It is a pity that the commissioner is not taking us seriously, it is not as if they do not have the money, they have the money, they are just finding it difficult to pay us.

“Imagine the risk we are taking with no light and no weapon and yet no appreciation. The hotel is very vulnerable, there are a lot of ways people can gain entrance into the hotel, all the fences are broken down and yet, nothing has been stolen or vandalised since we are here. We want them to pay us our salaries.”

The Nation further learnt that the managers of the hotel are based in Kaduna. Efforts made to contact them proved abortive and some of the staff contacted by The Nation said they have no hope of hearing from them.

The staff have since been disengaged and are hoping to get new jobs while others had to set up some petty businesses to keep body and soul together.

When contacted through a phone call, the Commissioner of Tourism, Sunday Kolo said he was not aware of anything of such directing the reporter to get in touch with the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry.

“I do not know anything about them or the issue you are talking about. Stop asking me these questions, if you want to clarify any issue, go to the Permanent Secretary because I do not know anything about it.”

To emphasise his point, he sent a text message to the reporter which read, “The issue of employment is not for Commissioner to discuss, if you need clarification, get through to the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, you get whatever details you require.”

Efforts to get the Permanent Secretary proved abortive at the time of filing this report. He was not in the office when the reporter checked in.