The Kwara State Government has in the early hours of today, Thursday begun the demolition of a property allegedly belonging to the family of former Senate President Bukola Saraki, a few weeks after serving them with a quit notice.
Recall that Governor AbdulRazaq-led administration had claimed that the property did not have a C of O, adding that no dime was paid to the state government before the land was “grabbed” by the Saraki’s father, late Olusola, during his administration as the Governor of the state.
Earlier today around 4:00 am, it was learnt, the security operatives dispersed protesters, including aged women within the complex while the demolition was going on.
Recall that the state Director General of the Bureau of Lands, Ibrahim Salman, had on Wednesday revealed details surrounding the civil service clinic land and its adjourning plots in Ilorin, the state capital, amid public enquiry on the status of the property reclaimed by the state government.
“The entire land was acquired in the 1970s for overriding public interest and same was initially designed to host the phase 11 of the state secretariat.
“The construction of the said state secretariat phase 11, was at superstructure level before same was abandoned”, the DG of the Bureau of Lands stated in statement.
The entire land was later redesigned in the 1980s for the construction of the civil service clinic, state secretariat and a parking lot for both clinic and the state secretariat.
“The dream of the state government was stalled when part of the land slated for the parking lot was spuriously allocated in principle to one Asa Investment for commercial purposes.
“From available records, the allocation was not based on a formal application, not evidence of payment for the said allocation as stipulated in the letter of application in principle and consequently no right of occupancy was ever issued to the company.
“Furtherance, in flagrant abuse of the allocation terms, the company took possession of the land and constructed what is today known as “Ile Arugbo” on part of the land that was designed as parking lot and later conceived to host the expansion of the civil service clinic into a full-fledged hospital.
“Following a resolution of the state House of Assembly, mandating him to revoke/withdraw the spurious allocation, Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq signed an instrument to reclaim the land on the ground that same was unlawfully allocated to a private company contrary to the public purpose of its acquisition and occupied in breach of the terms of allocation”, the statement added.
