The rift between Governor Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso and his predecessor Malam Ibrahim Shekarau is far from being over as Shekarau yesterday categorically denied an accusation that his administration had refused to abide by the agreement that 50 percent of the Kano Western Bypass plots should be developed and given to original owners of the farmlands as part of their compensation while government allocates the remaining half.
State commissioner for land and physical planning Alhaji Mohammed Nadu Yahya had on Monday defended Governor Kwankwaso’s administration for revoking all plots allocated at the Western Bypass by Shekarau administration, saying the decision to revoke the plot allocations followed refusal of the immediate past government to abide by an agreement between Kano government and owners of the farmlands.
Daily Trust reports that the Western Bypass corridor which was initiated by Shekarau administration covers 28km and it is expected to yield about 50000 plots of mixed densities when completed strictly under a land to land (50: 50) compensation formula only.
Shekarau, who spoke through his media aide Sule Ya’u Sule, said he was surprised to hear the Kano land commissioner defending the revocation of Western Bypass plot allocations when in actual fact he was one of the major beneficiaries of the project.
Sule said it is not true that Shekarau administration refused to abide by the agreement for the taking over of the farmlands, saying more than 80 percent of owners of the farmlands were already given the right of occupancy.
He alleged that the commissioner is one of the major beneficiaries of the Western Bypass project as his company, City Scape Properties Limited, was given the contract for the general survey layout of the whole land that included scrapping of roads at N250 million. This is in addition to the contract also given to his firm for the installations of beacons at the site at N114 million.
The media aide said the aim of the project is to, among others, produce preliminary and final designs of layout plans scheme, including formalization and regularization of informal settlements as well as to produce land use plans for all the accelerated development areas.
When contacted to respond to the allegation that his company handled the project, state commissioner for land and physical planning Alhaji Mohammed Nadu Yahya said he is only chairman of the company and not its owner as explained by Shekarau.
Yahya said owner of the firm only called him to be chairman of his company only out of respect being a one-time Kano surveyor general. He also said the owner of the survey firm once worked under him at state ministry of land.
The commissioner also said he was not after all appointed commissioner when Governor Kwankwaso revoked all allocations at the controversial Kofar Na’isa layout and Western Bypass, saying government revoked the allocations because it discovered a lot of irregularities in the exercise.
No comments:
Post a Comment