- Allegedly threatening to use govt’s influence to destroy guest house
SaharaReporters gathered that the Chief of Staff tricked the security personnel guarding the hotel into believing that once the management sent him the bill, he would transfer the money within an hour.
Mallam Sani Liman Kila, the Chief of Staff to Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State has been accused of fraud and breach of trust by using the name of the governor to lodge in hotels for weeks and disappearing without paying.
Sources told SaharaReporters that Kila is in the habit of doing that and that the executives of the hoteliers’ association in the state had been notified of the matter as he has allegedly used the same trick to defraud at least seven other hotels.
The latest victim in the alleged fraud committed by Mallam Kila, a former Immigration Controller, is the Admiralty Suites Hotel, Kaduna. He reportedly stayed in one of the hotel’s suites for weeks and his bill accumulated to N865,100,000.
He, however, allegedly fled the hotel without paying the money.
SaharaReporters gathered that the Chief of Staff tricked the security personnel guarding the hotel into believing that once the management sent him the bill, he would transfer the money within an hour.
However, it was learnt that after he left the hotel premises, he lodged in another hotel and stopped answering calls from the management of Admiralty Suites Hotel.
It was gathered before he stopped answering their calls, he warned them to stop calling him and also threatened to use his relationship with the governor to destroy the hotel if they spoke out about what happened.
A staff member of the Admiralty Suites Hotel who spoke to SaharaReporters on condition of anonymity revealed that the security officer, Iliya Bamaiyi, who allowed Kila to go without ensuring he paid is now in trouble.
The source said an investigation carried out after the incident revealed that Kila had defrauded some other hotels before the election of Senator Sani as the governor.
“As we speak, Mallam Kila is currently lodging at the Stone Edge Hotel, Kaduna. How did we find out? After he left our hotel, with a bill of N865,100 with a promise to transfer the money in an hour, we waited. After one hour, we didn’t get an alert so we started calling him but he kept telling us not to disturb him. Two days later, he stopped picking up calls and when he picked up on the third day, he warned that nobody should disturb his life.
“Now, he has switched off the phone with the mobile number he gave to us. For two days, we called the number and it was ringing but he did not answer it. We started tracking it and we found out that he is lodging at the Stone Edge Hotel in Kaduna.
“Further checks showed that the same day he checked out of our hotel was the day he checked in at the Stone Edge without paying us. And I am sure he hasn’t made any deposit at Stone Edge.
“Regrettably, such a person and character is made the chief of staff to the governor or does it means that Governor Sani didn’t know him very well before appointing him,” the hotel worker lamented.
“We want the governor to do what he has been doing with his name. Also, we want other hotels to know the kind of man Mallam Kila is so that they will not fall into his trap and also be defrauded,” another source added.
Meanwhile, efforts made by SaharaReporters to get Mallam Kila’s reaction were unsuccessful as he did not answer his calls. He also did not reply to the text message sent to him.
When SaharaReporters contacted Muhammad Shehu Lawal, Chief Press Secretary to Governor Uba Sani for his comment, he requested time to speak with the Chief of Staff to hear from him.
“Please give me till Tuesday,” he said.
However, all efforts to reach him on Tuesday as promised were not successful as he did not answer calls from our reporter.
Credits: Saharareporters
