▪︎Reports him to President Tinubu
▪︎Calls new governor a stooge
Although both men were in the Villa at the same period to see President Bola Tinubu, former Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje said he would have slapped his predecessor and presidential candidate of the NNPP, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso had he run into him on the premises of the Presidential Villa.
The visits by both men to President Tinubu happened other same day, but at different times.
While Kwankwaso’s mission to the Presidential Villa had yet to be ascertained as of press time, Ganduje was in the Villa to report Kwankwaso to Tinubu over the demolition of some of his legacy projects by the new governor, Abba Yusuf, who is an in-law to Kwankwaso but whom Ganduje described as Kwankwaso’s stooge.
When asked about the President’s response to his complaint and if they had reconciled inside the Villa, Ganduje said “I know that he is in the building. But we did not meet inside. I would have slapped him if I met him inside.”
Ganduje had reported his former boss, Kwankwaso, to President Tinubu over the current demolition going on in the State.
He described the demolition in Kano carried out by Governor Yusuf as “illegal”.
The governor was obviously distraught because the demolition was executed without due process and, therefore, breached the law.
Ganduje said the demolition exercise was done without carrying out any investigation or giving due notice in line with the provisions of the Land Use Act.
Recall that Yusuf had, in his inauguration speech on May 29, given marching orders to security agencies in Kano to immediately repossess all public property believed to have been sold by the Ganduje administration.
He alleged that they were illegally acquired and built by the Ganduje’s administration.
Some structures demolished in the recent exercise included Haji camp, Daula Hotel and shopping complexes around the Eid Prayer Ground in Kano, structures Ganduje said were products of Public-Private Partnerships.
The former governor said he came to brief the President about the security situation in Kano State, especially “the looting and vandalization that are going on in Kano. And we don’t want it to result in religious or tribal conflict.
“Thousands of traders have been rendered without any business,” he said.
Ganduje who served as Kwankwaso’s deputy from 1999 – 2003 and 2011 – 2015, blamed his former boss for directing the new administration under Yusuf to carry out what he termed a vengeful campaign against the previous administration.
He lamented the fact that the shopping complex around the new Daula Hotel developed under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement, approved by the state’s executive, was demolished on the directive of Kwankwaso, without any investigation, without any notice, by the Yusuf administration.
“We appointed a technical committee right from the beginning. They submitted a report to the Executive Council. The executive council approved for the PPP project. The PPP project is 90% executed, but now without any investigation, without any notice, this new government under the directive of Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso demolished the building. The issue is in a court of law.”
Yusuf had said the demolition exercise was part of the fulfilment of his campaign promise to “restore” the urban development masterplan of the city.
He had also insisted that the exercise was not a vendetta against the past administration of Ganduje and that many more demolitions would follow.
But Ganduje said he spoke at length on the issue while reporting the matter to the president and had petitioned the Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba with video evidence of the looting and vandalisation that trailed the demolition.
He said he had briefed the president adequately on the demolition exercise that even affected the supporters of Kwankwaso whom he accused of ordering the action.
He said the governor whom he described as a “stooge” of Kwankwaso was no longer happy because of the condemnation that greeted the move.
Asked to give figures to property lost to the demolition exercise, he said some human rights organizations were working on the level of damage.
He, however, said one of the developers who was affected had sued government demanding over N10 billion.
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