Ebonyi State Government has threatened to shut down any hotel, restaurant, joints or recreational centre found culpable for aiding or providing cover for criminals in the state.

This was according to a statement from the state Commissioner for Border Peace and Internal Security, Stanley Emegha, made available to newsmen in Abakaliki, the state capital.

It said that observation had shown that some criminals hide in some of the aforementioned places from where they carry out their evil plots in the state especially in the night, thereby undermining its efforts to rid the state of all forms of crimes and criminality.

The state partly read: “Sometimes, the proprietors of these joints are privy to the nefarious activities of these hoodlums without exposing their identity to security agents for possible arrest and prosecution notwithstanding the fact that the state government has been keeping close surveillance on these joints for some time now.

“Consequently, the state government has perfected arrangements to seal the affected joints if the said proprietors who are assumed to be partners in crime with the hoodlums fail to refrain themselves from such reprehensible acts.

“Incidentally, it is on record that landlords of such hotel proprietors will equally not be left out in the state government sealing order.

“On the other hand, it has also been observed that some managers of night clubs have shamelessly allowed some of their teeming customers to parade a retinue of minors and under-aged youths especially teenage girls below the age of 18 years who usually indulge in all manner of immoral lifestyle at awkward hours of the night without recourse to state government attitudinal change campaign.

“Henceforth, the state government will not hesitate to revoke the right of occupancy of any landlord or penalise any hotel manager for condoning such immoral conduct that seemingly tends to compromise the future of Ebonyi youths. To be forewarned is to be forearmed,” the statement said. (The Sun)