The Kano State Government has resolved to take a second look at the demolition of illegal structures in the state.
The Commissioner for Information and Internal Affairs, Malam Halilu Baba Dantiye, a former resident of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, dropped the hint, Tuesday, at the swearing-in ceremony of newly elected officials of the Correspondents Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Kano State Council.
Dantiye said the government had concluded arrangements to constitute a commission of inquiry to scrutinize the ongoing demolition exercise in the state.
The Commissioner explained that the government had ordered the demolition exercise in order to recover and return wrongly acquired or misappropriated plots of land to their rightful owners. And such land will not be re-allocated to individuals or group but returned to the rightful institutions in the state.
Dantiye’s words: “The government has taken certain actions, some controversial. I was on media on the issue of demolition. I think I was able to address it well.
“Obviously, there is no contradiction that these places belong to institutions, universities, mosques and so on. All the places that were demolished are going to be restored to their original owners.
“Lands owned by Polytechnic will be restored to the polytechnic to build laboratories, hostels, lecture rooms and others. Lands belonging to the mosques will be returned to the mosques. Nobody is going to be allocated any of such lands.
“Whosoever feels dissatisfied with that can approach the Commission of Inquiry, which will be established. Those with convincing reasonable claims will be compensated by the government.”
The Commissioner then congratulated those winners in the by-election organized to fill in the available positions in the Correspondents’ Chapel.