Osun State Police Command has arrested the general manager of Western Sun Hotels, Ede, Samuel Owolawi, over alleged attempted land-grabbing, assault and malicious damage to property.
Mr Owolawi was arrested on Saturday after he allegedly led hoodlums and soldiers to demolish a building under construction and chased away workers on a site behind the hotel.
The builder Mutiu Tijani said in a statement to the police that Owolawi’s gang also demolished the building on the orders of Kamal Yusuf, a major general in the Nigerian Army and chairman of Western Sun Hotels.
According to him, the gang also beat up the workers and threatened the men never to return to the site, claiming that Yusuf recently bought over the property from Ede North Local Government.
“While bricklayers were working on site, to my surprise, General Manager of Western Sun Hotels, Samuel Owolawi, asked the workers to leave the site on the order of Gen. Yusuf.
“In fact, they demolished all works we have done and wasted the materials – bricks, sand, cement, we had to run for our dear lives,” the builder said in his statement at Oke Iresi Police Division, Ede.
It was gathered that the police have also invited the chairman of Ede North local Government Adeyemi Elliot for questioning.
When contacted by NAN, Osun police spokesperson Yemisi Opalola appealed to the parties involved to maintain peace while the police carry out further investigation into the matter.
This is the second time an hotelier will be arrested in Osun following that of Ramon Adedoyin over the death of a postgraduate student of Obafemi Awolowo University.
