EDITORIAL: Halting the mutation of our hotels into graveyards

Horrific evidence that life has become too cheap in Nigeria was the discovery of a hotel with a massive graveyard in Anambra State a fortnight ago. The said facility, situated along the ever-busy Onitsha–Owerri Highway, had been a haven for kidnappers for only heaven knows how long. With 30 well partitioned graves, and shrine/charms atop the building to boot, the possibility that some victims of its ritual killings might have been unsuspecting lodgers cannot be ruled out.

This hair-raising find, at Udoka Golden Point Hotel and Suites, at Oba town in Idemili Local Government Area, was by the state’s newly established security outfit, “Agunechemba” or the lion that guards the town. The savagery is the height of human rights violation. A sticking point in this chilling echo is that the hotel, primarily utilised for a homicidal regimen, has its kind in many states of the country. The detection reinforces the call in some quarters for the devolution of policing in…