Brookfields hotel blames ministry over lease dispute
Hotel director Alhaji Ahmed Wurie says Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs failed to review rent as agreed in 2015.
Brookfields hotel executive director Alhaji Ahmed Wurie blamed the Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs for breaching their lease agreement. Speaking at a parliamentary committee meeting on October 29, 2026, Wurie stated the ministry, not the hotel, should initiate rent reviews every five years. He noted the rent was reviewed in 2015 from 40,000 dollars to 60,000 dollars, with a commitment for a 20 percent increase every five years.
Wurie clarified that the hotel did not seize land belonging to Milton Margai Technical University, but was seeking its agreed-upon plot. He explained that a fence erected by a Special Court, not the hotel or government, might have been mistaken for the boundary. The hotel has been pursuing this land issue for 10 years, seeking the remaining part of their designated space.
The hotel, Hilltop Hotels Group Limited, is a Sierra Leonean company that secured investors, including KG and S, to help with rehabilitation starting in 2012. Operations were impacted by the Ebola outbreak. Seven owners are Sierra Leonean, with two British, one Irish, and one Jamaican.
Why it mattersThe lease dispute directly affects Brookfields hotel shareholders and the Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs.