ISHA laments over forced hotels biometric data capturing
IMO STATE MAY CONTINUE TO RANK FIRST ON THE NA TION’S UNEMPLOYMENT LADDER AND THE RESUL TANT EFFECTS WILL NOT ONLY Be loss of jobs by some workers in the hotel and hospitality industry, but a boom in all kinds of social vices in every area of the state, if Governor Hope Uzodinma fails to caution his aides over harassment, intimidation and all sorts of extortion. This is because the association (ISHA) has stated that the majority of the hotels and leisure centres in the state would be forced to prune some of their workforce. The recent case in point in the state is the wailing and lamentation by the proprietors of hotels and hospitality sector in Imo State, who are wailing, because of the unabated harassment of the the hotel owners over forced biometric capturing, but they have passionately appealed to governor Hope Uzodinma to put a halt to this and rescue the sector and its workers from what they have for a long time continued to describe as reckless harassment, intimidation and extortion by the state government’s agents saddled with the responsibility of implementing the state’s Biometric Data Capture and Painting exercise. According to the association, the unholy trend if it is not checked could spell doom for the industry, which is regarded as the second largest employer of labour after the state government. Acting under the aegis, “Imo State Hoteliers Association”, the hotel proprietors in a letter to the governor dated 9th February, 2022 titled “Distortion/Confusion Over State’s Biometric Data Capturing and Painting” and signed by the chief servant (chairman), a copy of which was made available to Business A.M., the hotel owners accused the coordinator of the exercise, Kingsley Nwachukwu, of being a thorn in the flesh of his members through his insistence that all vehicles belonging to hotels in the state must face the biometric data capturing exercise.” This was contained in his letter of 9th November 2021 to the association entitled “Demand Notice/letter of invitation” where he directed the members to meet with the management committee of the state Biometric Data Capturing and Painting for discussion on modalities for the exercise within one week upon the receipt of his letter. Nwachukwu in the said letter warned that failure to comply with this would constrain the committee to direct her enforcement team to impound all vehicles belonging to the association. This demand did not go down well with the hoteliers who, although acknowledged it as part of government’s measures to fight crime and criminality in the state, argued that operational vehicles of hotels should not be involved in such an exercise as they are neither engaged for commercial services nor are used for criminal activities. Chukwunyere had also in his letter to the governor, explained that every hotel in the state is either a limited liability company or a duly registered institution with the corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), hence it is untenable and illogical to separate any hotel’s operating vehicles from the very hotel that owns them. He lamented that some members of the association had in the past been embarrassed, dehumanised and their vehicles illegally impounded in the most primitive aggressive manner on the flimsy excuse of failure to participate in the government Biometric Data Capturing programme. According to Chukwunyere, apart from ceaseless seizure of vehicles of his members, he also alleged that Nwachukwu and his team were equally collecting cash, which was never paid through the government’s Treasury Single Account (TSA). “The above notwithstanding, Kingsley Nwachukwu appears to have vowed not to give our members a breathing space and has remained a thorn in our flesh and his blunt refusal to provide our association with the relevant legal documents backing his demand on our members speaks volumes of an action loaded with fraud and dishonesty to extort money from members of the association, and has vowed, never to refund money already collected from them,” he said