Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El Rufai yesterday said that the ongoing pulling down of houses and business premises erected on lands belonging to public institutions in Kaduna and Zaria was not the same as a “demolition exercise “but recovery of government lands”.
El Rufai who spoke to the Press through his Spokesman, Samuel Aruwan, said it had become important to stress the difference, because the issue had been politicised.
He said: “It has become important to let the public know that what we embarking tomorrow (today) is not the same as demolition. What we are doing is the recovery of lands belonging to schools, hospitals, Libraries etc which some powerful people have carved out and allocated to themselves.“We are doing this because no one has any right to infringe on such lands for his private use to the detriment of the future plans of such institutions.
“Look at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, it has a very expansive land. Now, the school has developed a 20 year development plan. Had it no land space, how would that be possible?
“Those who founded this institutions deliberately obtained such lands with a developmental vision for them. We will not allow such a vision to end as someones property.
“Unfortunately some distracters are going about saying this government has nothing than demolition. They are politicising the good intention of this government”, he said.
The marked areas in Zaria, which involves hundreds of homes and commercial houses are around Allhudahuda College, Central Market, many marked shops in some part of town.
In Kaduna, affected areas are: Sardauna Memorial College, Rimi College, LEA Primary School, Maiduguri Road and LEA primary School Constitution Road.
Already, some residents in these areas have started pulling down their buildings on their own.
According to some of them they were using the opportunity to remove some fittings, remove roofs and other building material which they would use in the future.
