The Umar Ganduje led Kano State
Government has reportedly seized and demolished a property worth N250million
belonging to the Emir of Kano Muhammadu Sanusi II.
On Wednesday, Daily Nigerian said
its investigation with Kano Focus Newspapers revealed that the property,
located at Ibrahim Dabo Road, was demolished to pave way for the ongoing
flyover and underpass being constructed at the Dangi Roundabout area.
The demolition of structures
within the land and the fence was supervised by the Commissioner of Works,
Engineer Muaz Magaji, on Friday, 15 November, 2019, days before the Kano High
Court presided by Justice Usman Na’abba nullified the law that created new
emirates and the emirs in Kano.
On anonymity, some officials of
the Ministry of Lands, disclosed that Emir Sanusi purchased the 1.2 hectare
land in 2010 at the cost of N200million.
Sanusi’s Chief of Staff, Munir
Sanusi, declined comment.
He explained that the monarch had
not given him clearance to speak on the matter.
In his reaction, the commissioner
claimed that the Kano government had paid compensation to the emir.
“I can tell you he got the alert.
For eight months, this issue has stalled the project, and this project is for
public interest. We were even hoping that the Emir would give us the land free
to continue with the work”, Magaji said.
“But since he did not give it to
us, we decided to engage the service of valuers who valued it according to the
statutory land rate because the government does not engage in commercial
purchase”.
The commissioner also confirmed
that he personally mounted the Grade D9 bulldozer to pull down the said
structures.
But sources say statutory land
rate the government paid Sanusi was a paltry N4million.
Meanwhile, Malam Muazu Shuaibu,
the Secretary-General of Islamic Foundation, an NGO which owns a portion of
land hosting the shops affected by the bridge project, has accused the Kano
government of snatching their land without due compensation.
He explained that the shops were
leased out to developers on a Build Operate and Transfer, BOT arrangement for a
period of 20 years with the aim of generating funds to maintain the Umar Bin
Khattab Mosque.
Shuaibu said: “They sent valuers
to make an assessment on what amount to give to each allotee. But we told them
that they cannot proceed with the demolition until payments have been made to
the beneficiaries.
“So, they asked us to forward our
account numbers but we said no, we cannot forward account numbers until they
give the figures they would pay to each allotee.
“After so much delay, the
government officials later sent the figures which we share with our developers
before finally submitting account numbers and the government officials asked us
to wait for payment.
“I contacted the developers to
know if any of them had received an alert but all of them said they did not
receive alerts.
“In less than the 24 hours given,
the commissioner came personally and started demolishing part of the shops and
then asked thugs to take everything they want as booty, claiming that they had
paid compensation”.
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