Man dies in a hotel in Rivers; activist demands CCTV footage

According to reports, a middle-aged man who went by the name of Ken was discovered dead in his hotel room while staying in the D/Line neighborhood of Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State.

While his dead body was found on Sunday, Ken was claimed to have booked into the hotel on Saturday.

His death’s circumstances weren’t known at the time of publication.

According to reports, a hotel employee called the local police station and requested investigators be sent to the site.

Grace Iringe-Koko, the state police public relations officer, verified the event when contacted and stated that the inquiry is ongoing.

Police Superintendent Iringe-Koko claimed that officers had visited the hotel and that the body had been placed in a morgue.

“Yes, we are aware of the incident and the man’s corpse has been retrieved. Our men took photographs and a preliminary investigation was done.

“Investigation is still ongoing to ascertain the immediate and remote causes of the death as well as the circumstances,” she said.

Prince Wiro, who serves as the Center for Basic Rights Protection and Accountability Campaign’s national coordinator, has urged the state government to form a task group to mandate the installation and usage of CCTV cameras in hotels and guesthouses in order to increase security.

He said, “Investigations showed that many hotels are not complying with check-in procedures stipulated by the state government sometime in 2018 and 2019 when there were issues of serial killing of young girls in some hotels in the state.

“The essence of complying with check-in procedure, for instance having CCTV camera, log-in register and so on is that if there are issues, it will be easy for the police to investigate.”

“I think the Rivers State Government, through the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, should set up a task force to begin to monitor the level of compliance by hotels and guest houses as regards check-in procedures.”