Hotel lodger found dead, phone contacts deleted

The hotel

A man, identified simply as Sunday, has died in a Lagos hotel on
Ishawo Road, in the Ikorodu area of Lagos State.
PUNCH Metro learnt that the management of the Western Lodge
Hotel discovered his corpse around 1am in his room.
All the contacts on his mobile phone were said to have been
deleted, making it difficult for his relations to be contacted.
Our correspondent was told that the case was reported at the
Owutu Police Division, while his corpse had been deposited in
the Ikorodu General Hospital Mortuary.
When our correspondent visited the area on Monday, he
observed that the hotel carried on with its business as usual.
Some of the ladies were seen outside smoking, while a few
others attended to customers at the bar.
A source told our correspondent that the deceased was
poisoned.
He said, “He checked in around that 10am. It was around 1am
that his corpse was discovered. The man was poisoned. The
owner of the hotel reported at Owutu that they found his corpse
in his room.
“But when the police checked the man’s phone, they discovered
that all the contacts and his phone calls had been deleted. There
was nothing with which to identify him. Nobody knows his
address and family.”
A worker in another hotel in the area, however, said the victim
might have killed himself.
He said since the incident happened, the hotel had been running
its business at night.
He said, “I was told that somebody died there, but I don’t know
the details except that when he got inside the room, he decided
to take his own life. The hotel has continued to run its business
as usual. In fact, not many people are aware of it.”
The workers at the hotel declined comment, while others said
there was no such incident.
When PUNCH Metro asked to speak with the manager of the
hotel, he was said to be unavailable.
However, a man, who spoke for the management of the hotel,
said the victim died on the road and not inside the hotel.
He said, “You press people have come with your wahala, and
you want to complicate matters for me. I don’t want to talk to
you about the incident.
“But if I will say anything, I will only say it didn’t happen here.
The man stepped out of this hotel and was about crossing the
road when he was hit by a car. One of his family members, a
woman, has even been here. She even thanked me for my
sacrifice because I had to give some money so they could take
his corpse to Kaduna.”
The immediate past Police Public Relations Officer, Patricia
Amadin, had confirmed to our correspondent on Monday that
the deceased died in the hotel.
She said the case was still under investigation to ascertain the
true cause of death.
“But we are looking at a case of sudden and unnatural death,”
she added.
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