Senate, others attack el-Rufai’s govt over demolition of APC faction’s HQ

The crisis rocking the Kaduna State chapter of the All Progressives Congress has taken a new dimension as the office of the faction led by Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi was demolished on Tuesday.

Though the Kaduna State Property Development Agency claimed responsibility for the demolition, the senator representing Kaduna Northern Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Hunkuyi, claimed that Governor Nasir el-Rufai personally drove a bulldozer to demolish the building.

Hunkuyi, who donated the property to the APC faction as its headquarters, said on his Twitter handle, “In the early hours of today (Tuesday), the Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, personally drove a bulldozer, accompanied by armoured tanks to destroy my house at 11B Sambo Road.”

The ‘APC Akida’ and the ‘Restoration APC’ had, while unveiling the headquarters on Thursday, said they had to relocate to the new office “to avoid the activities of thugs.”

However, less than 24 hours after, the office was marked for demolition but the APC factional  officials were unperturbed as they used the facility on Sunday to announce the suspension of the governor for six months.

The suspension was overturned by the party executives loyal to the governor, who said that the Hunkuyi-led faction had no such power.

One of our correspondents, who visited the scene, learnt that the demolition was carried out amidst tight security.

A security source, who pleaded anonymity because he was not permitted to speak on the matter, said the demolition took place at about 5am.

Residents of the area said they were woken up by the loud sound of the bulldozer pulling down the building around 5am.

However, the Director-General, Kaduna State Geographical Information Service, Ibrahim Husseini, said the house was “removed” for flagrant violations of the land use law and the non-payment of ground rent since 2010.

Husseini said the land had now been re-allocated to KASUPDA to build a recreation centre in the area.

He stated, “This morning, a building on 11B Sambo Close was removed for flagrant violations of land use and non-payment of ground rent since 2010. This illegal violation of the land use law had begun to distress neighbours, who are being forced to endure an influx of thugs and blockage of the road.

“The Kaduna Geographic Information Service issued a revocation notice of statutory right of occupancy, No. KD. 16712, that covers 11B Sambo Close in the Ungwan Rimi area.

“The appropriate notice of revocation was delivered at 28 Inuwa Wada Road, the registered address of the company that held the title of the property. The notice was also delivered to the building in question, and sent by post to the registered address of the previous title holder.”

source:NAN