A Kano based businessman, Ibrahim Mukhtar Muhammed, has threatened to take legal action against the Kano state government for demolishing his multi-million Naira property located at new Gandu layout close to Zoo road in the metropolis.
Muhammad who addressed newsmen Friday evening, said the property was demolished without prior notice from the Kano State Urban Planning and Development Authority (KNUPDA).
He accused officials of KNUPDA of alleged extortion by taking money from him to design the construction, drawing and supervising of the work and suddenly demolishing the project, describing it as traumatic.
“This is once a beautiful place we constructed, but as I look back you can see what happened as a result of the demolition exercise that was carried out by KNUPDA.
“We were not given any notice prior to this demolition. We just woke up one morning, that was the Monday morning and found these rubbles.
“My driving force for constructing this eatery is just to help our younger ones, our brothers, our children to get something, to get employment. I’m not here to make any money because of this thing.
“As you can see, as I can tell you from the stretch of almost 500 feet, I’m the owner of this property. So if there’s anybody that has a stake, I am the one that has a stake.
“This place that was constructed before, you cannot come after eight o’clock, you cannot pass this place. The place has become a dumping ground, people urinate, you need to do all sorts of things here. But by our coming, I said no, it has to be stopped. So we applied for construction of temporary, which was on the process.
“But unfortunately, without any notice, we finished this building. The only thing that remains is to put furniture inside and to start business and they come and demolish this.
“Unfortunately, this government, for the past six months or seven months, they will collect your money, but they will not give you approval. You can go and confirm from the KNUPDA, you will see heaps of files. So what we knew we did was they sent their representatives.
“They were even the ones telling us what to do for instance to cut here, demolish here before the final structure. This drawing was produced from the architectural department of KNUPDA.
“And prior to this demolition, when they told me that they are going to demolish this place, I called the MD. And the MD said, okay, I should meet him on Monday, nine o’clock. Later he said, 11 o’clock. That was even after the demolition.
“That was when I know I’ve just been deceived because nothing has been done. And I went to him and I explained to him, this is the situation. He said I should come on Thursday.
“I went there on Thursday when I came back from Abuja. I called him several times, with no response. I sent him this message, no reply and he’s like a brother to me. So I don’t have any choice. I want to tell the people and the whole world that this is what is happening. Well, this whole thing can be politically motivated, or anything I can’t say.
He explained further that the loss he incurred is about N20 million loss, but is not troubled by the loss as the psychological torture it poses.
“So the next line of action is I have called my lawyers. I have shown them what we have, what we did. So the lawyers are studying it, and by God’s grace, we will take legal action for that,” Muhammad declared.
On his side, the Managing Director, KNUPDA, Arc. Ibrahim Yakubu Adamu said his building was on an access road.
He said KNUPDA has given him three notification warnings and have every evidences including abetment notice of 24 hours.
“We cannot demolish any structure without following due Processes”.
“The money he paid doesn’t mean he was cleared by the agency but it was part of the process in carrying out his building, but the office will now analyze the building. And he was not in the development control office but on structure.”
The Managing Director therefore announced that the agency will by January 2025 begin prosecution of defaulters of illegal structures across the state.