Ex-Minister Gbagi’s alleged accusation, a plot by his detractors

The Chairman of Signatious Hotel, Warri, Delta State, Mr Kenneth Gbagi, has expressed shock at the allegations leveled against him on the workers in his hotel, denied any involvement, and promised to look into it whilst accusing his political enemies of trying to rubbish his ambition ahead of the 2023 governorship race in the state.

It would be recalled that Mr Kenneth Gbagi, had earlier been dragged over the alleged dehumanisation of four employees of the hotel, three women and a man, who claimed they were asked to be stripped naked, their nudes were filmed and the snapshots sent online as he arrested them for allegedly stealing N5,000 from his wallet.

There were reports that he arrested the four workers after they were stripped naked and photographed inside the hotel before they were handed over to the police.

Furthers reports made also had it that Mr Gbagi was accused of further collecting their ATM cards and withdrawing the sum of (279,000) from their personal accounts, forcing them at gunpoint to write statements under duress, locked them in a room at the hotel before inviting police officers from Ebrumede Police Station to detain them since Friday, 18th September, denying them bail until they were charged to the Effurun Magistrate Court on Monday, 21st September 2020 on trumped-up charges.

However, activists and social media users condemned the act and urged the state Commissioner of Police, Hafiz Inuwa, to investigate the incident and arrest all those complicit.

Kenneth Gbagi, who was a former Minister of State for Education, is an hotelier, one of the richest attorneys in Nigeria, a criminologist and a politician that is currently nursing a governorship ambition in Delta State in 2023 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, has however accused his political enemies of taking advantage of the incident to rubbish his ambition ahead of the 2023 governorship race in the state.

The Director, Human Resources, Signatious Hotel, Egba Ederoghene, in a statement titled, ‘The futile attempt of political detractors to blackmail Gbagi’, said the allegations were meant to tarnish the reputation of Gbagi.
Ederoghene said the management confirmed to the public that the staff members in the pictures are part of a malicious conspiracy by some political detractors to bring Gbagi’s character to disrepute and this is not the first time an attempt has been made to smear the character of the chairman for whatever reason.

He further said, in the absence of any dirt to nail Gbagi’s pristine reputation, they have descended to mudslinging by concocting fictitious stories to stir emotions and gain public attention.

In solidarity with the denial of these allegations leveled against Mr Kenneth Gbagi, the Coalition of United Political Parties in Delta State have come out to express their worries about the spate of social media campaign of calumny against Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi. The Coalition has released a statement cautioning detractors to face their ambitions and stop heating the polity.