Erstwhile Kano State Governor and presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, Rabiu Kwankwaso, in the last presidential election said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu expressed shock at how the immediate past governor of the state, Abdullahi Ganduje has mismanaged it.
Kwankwaso, made this disclosure while addressing State House correspondents from the Aso Rock Villa on Friday after meeting with the President, as he and his successor, Ganduje, were both invited to the State House by Tinubu discuss the ongoing demolition of some properties sited on lands belonging to Kano State Government.
Citing reasons for the demolitions, Kwankwaso added that Ganduje administration did not follow legal procedures in acquiring the properties in question.
The NNPP chieftain maintained that the President was surprised when he revealed the fact of the matter to him.
He disclosed: “The President was shocked. Are you not shocked that somebody will sell university? Are you not shocked that he demolished the only university? Daula Hotel, for those of you who are in Kano, you know the old Daula, demolished to zero, and that is a faculty under the University of Science and Technology. He demolished that one. Are you not shocked?
“The President was shocked. He didn’t know. He even mentioned that he talked to somebody to go and find out for him. But when I told him, I said, “You are a Muslim; very soon you are going for Sallah. How can you go under those circumstances and pray in that place? And even the Triumph place he is talking about, you are journalists. You should be angry because that’s your constituency; he demolished it completely and put shops everywhere.”
Kwankwaso furthered that his party, under Governor Abba Yusuf, was only interested in delivering their campaign promises to demolish such illegal buildings.
“You see, the governor is doing what we campaigned with. I wanted to be president; I campaigned also. And I went to Kano and told them that these places—schools, in fact, most of our schools in Kano— were being encroached on. And it is our policy to make sure that the encroached areas are returned to them.”