Saraki land revocation: Questions begging answers

W hy do we have to continue dissipating energy on the Ile Arugbo land re-acquisition by the Kwara  State government that originally owned the land?. Bukola Saraki knows the truth that he used his position as the then sitting governor of the state to corner the land for his father. Questions to be answered by […]

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hy do we have to continue dissipating energy on the Ile Arugbo land re-acquisition by the Kwara  State government that originally owned the land?. Bukola Saraki knows the truth that he used his position as the then sitting governor of the state to corner the land for his father. Questions to be answered by all discernible minds are as follows:

1. When the said land was unprocedurally allocated by self by Bukola were there no physical government structures for the phase 3 of the state secretariat on the land?
2. Was any payment made as compensation for the physical structures met on the land to Kwara State government before the illegal demolition of the same by Saraki?
3. Was any payment made to the state government for the acquisition?

The Yoruba saying is apt here that, Baloo Baloo, Abo nboo. Iyan Ogun odun a man joni lowo.  It is illogical to start to draw battle line when you are completely on the wrong side of the law. It is instructive to know that all papers relating to the land are invalid. It is also a thing of common knowledge that Ile Arugbo was constructed with local government funds. The plastic chairs in Ile Arugbo are state government owned.

The Land Use Act and the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended place all land within the state on the governors hands. Assuming without conceding that the Ile Arugbo land was Saraki’s personal land, the state reserves the right to acquire same for overall public purpose and interest.

Further investigation will show that the same ASA company of late Saraki was dashed Shonga farms from CAC record. So many stupid things were done for 16 years by Bukky/Fatai. So many Lawalites were harassed, hunted, brutalized and put behind bars illegally by Bukola. Some of them died after they were eventually released and a good example is Gani  Toye.

All Lawal’s legacies that they tried to erase completely e.g. the female hostel and auditorium hall at Kwara Poly were left uncompleted for 16 years not until Governor AA came that the projects got the desired attention.

Up Lawal Ilorin water reticulation was jettisoned and in some cases hopelessly brought down. Their own water reticulation remained comatose till date, despite several billions of naira that went down the drain with the false Ilorin water reticulation.

The Herald permanent site along Asa Dan Ilorin was turned into Diagnostics Centre in a bid to erase Lawal’s achievements and till date the state of the art printing equipment bought for the Herald by Lawal took flight since 2003, ditto the gas urbanites equipment purchased for Budo Efoo and Yakuba Radio Kwara &TV station.

All landed properties within the state, at Abuja and Kaduna were cornered, either sold or personalised by Bukky. And here is the man that draws battle line. He who seeks or comes to equity must come with clean hands.

And what about KWASU? Local government accounts was illegally deployed to take several loans to fund the takeoff of the state university but a visit to the university at Malate showed that the federal government, TETFUND accounted for 99%of the physical structures on the campus. Several billions of loans taken for the same purpose took flight.

We are 100 per cent behind the governor, every illegally acquired state property(s) must be returned to the state. If every governor had stolen the resources of the state the way Bukky/ Fatai did, they wouldn’t have met anything on ground. Call a spade a spade, heaven will not fall.

Edun A.B. Esq. writes from Ilorin.