Obudu Range Resort ‘raped’ with property worth billions allegedly stolen in Cross River
Property estimated at several billions of naira have been allegedly stolen from Obudu Ranch Resort in Obanliku local government area of Cross River State.
The property, DAILY POST investigations revealed, include: two 30-seater Nissan coaster buses, two hilux vans, a water tank vehicle (stationed at the Bebi Air Strip), and Landrover defender vehicle for Fire Service.
Others are: two presidential gulf vehicles, honey factory pick-up vehicle, a 150 KVA Mikano generator (at the water park, bottom hill), a 750 KVA Mikano generator for the resort and ten brand new computers for the office of the general manager.
Also allegedly stolen were: two printers, 21 cargo containers at the resort, a deep freeze at the resort kitchen, equipment at the laundry room, brand new Wilson lawn tennis rackets, one NPF pick-up van with registration number 618 B, Nissan super salon with registration number 1GHC 40 and one Ford Everest SUV with registration number CR538A01.
Also found to have allegedly disappeared from the Range Resort was cash estimated at N164 million generated from the ranch. The amount was said to have been generated in the ranch from December 2015 to July 2018.
A breakdown of this figure revealed that in December 2015, forty-five million, three hundred thousand naira was generated from the resort, in the summer (August-September) holidays of 2015; the resort generated the sum of twenty-seven million naira only.
In summer of 2016, the sum of seventeen million naira was generated, while twenty-seven million was generated in December of 2016. In December 2017, the resort generated thirty million, three hundred and thirty-nine thousand, seven hundred and eighty-five naira, and in January 2018, the resort generated five million, one hundred and eighty-four thousand, seven hundred and sixteen naira.
In February 2018, the resort generated three hundred thousand, nine hundred and sixty-one naira, in March 2018, fifteen million seven hundred and six thousand naira only, and between May to July, 2018, thirty-one million naira only was generated. Still in July, 2018, the Actors Guild of Nigeria held a week seminar in the ranch through which about seven million naira was generated.
When contacted by our correspondent on Wednesday, the Commissioner for Culture and Tourism in the state, Mr Eric Anderson, lamented the situation, confirming that his ministry has received information about the alleged stolen items in the resort.
He told our correspondent, “Actually, we have received a report from the community, being that the community formed part of the staff of the Range.
“We are investigating, I can’t readily jump into conclusion but I still wondered how anybody will take anything out of the Range without the community themselves protecting such equipment and being that the community members are in the management team of the Range.
“So we are investigating but I strongly doubt if the things they are claiming are actually missing. However, we have management issue at the Range. We, of course, tried to allow a company to come and manage the place, invest in the infrastructures, maintain it and eventually handover to government.
“But the company has not met up with the requirement, so as a government, we did not want to shoot ourselves on the foot. We have opted out of that agreement but then, in opting out, there was going to be some level of communication between the government and the company. So, that is what we are on now,” he explained.
On the way forward, the commissioner said, “We have open the range for investment, we as a government has set up enabling environment, set up infrastructure and now call on serious-minded investors to come in and partner with the government to get Obudu mountain resort move on.
“At the moment, we have skeletal operations going on there, investors should visit and invest there, and we need investors, and investors should come and invest,” he stressed.
