NEWS DIGEST – The Kaduna State Government has threatened to raise down the private residence of the senator representing Kaduna North, Sulaiman Hunkuyi, located at No. 18B Inuwa Wada Road, U/Rimi, for non-payment of land use rent.
This is coming barely 48 hours after demolishing the secretariat of the state’ All Progressives Congress, APC, faction loyal to the two suspended senators – Shehu Sani, representing Kaduna Central, and Mr Hunkuyi.
However, explaining its motives for the demolition, the Director-General, Kaduna State Geographical Information Service, KSGIS, Ibrahim Husseini, in a statement on Monday, said the land was revoked and the building ‘removed’ for flagrant violations of land use and non-payment of rent since 2010.
Similarly, on Wednesday, KSGIS served Mr Hunkuyi a notice for non-payment of land use rent for 24 years at his private residence.
The agency, after computing the outstanding rent from 1995 till date (2018), amount to over N31.5million.
According the notice, Mr Hunkuyi is expected to pay within 30 days of service. Failure to comply will result in demolition.
However, DAILY NIGERIAN obtained a receipt of payment of N10, 000 rent for the 2017 land-used by Mr Hunkuyi, but the payment was not reflected in the computed outstanding issued by the agency.
Furthermore, an insider source said there is more to this notice than meets the eye, adding that the actual amount payable for the land use in Kaduna state is N10, 000. “How did it skyrocket to N61, 160? How could the same rate be charged from 1995 to date?,” the source queried.
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The source further alleged that there is political undertone to all these harassments, from party secretariat now to his private residence.
Mr Hunkuyi had, on Thursday 11 February, declared that Governor El-Rufai has not been fair to the state, and vowed to “do everything possible” to vote him out in 2019.
“The battle line has been drawn; we must vote out El-Rufa’i in 2019 general elections,” the senator said in Kaduna, at a ceremony to formally unveil a forum tagged: “APC Aspirants Forum”.
Mr Hunkuyi, who said that he might contest the Kaduna governorship seat in 2019, ” stated that the forum was to “check and neutralise the power of incumbency.”
He accused Mr El-Rufai of not being fair to the majority of the people, saying that the forum would work toward ensuring that non-performing officials were voted out.
The senator described the forum as a “thumb-down revolution” to oust Mr El-Rufai, and urged the APC to ensure internal democracy.
“We will put structures at all levels to ensure that APC followers get credible candidates that will be rallying points for all; anything less is not negotiable,” he said.
He added that the forum, which he would lead, would work with APC leaders to ensure that the party executives and political office aspirants emerged through democratic processes.
Mr Hunkuyi urged stakeholders to join hands with the forum to “rescue our dear party and Kaduna State from total collapse”, and promised to chart a new course in the effort toward a better Kaduna State.
Chairman, Kaduna Restoration Group, Tijjani Ramalan, said that the group would reject El-Rufai’s candidacy “if he chooses to contest in 2019”.
Mr Ramalan alleged that El-Rufai’s policies and actions were “anti-people”, and accused him of “having no regards to the wishes of those who supported his emergence as governor in 2015”.
He urged APC members to support the forum to protect democracy and provide its dividends to the people. “We are told that an APC reconciliation team will come to Kaduna. If they want our support, El-Rufa’i should not run in 2019,” he said.
In a reaction, the government said it had been made aware of the “boastful and pompous claims made by Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi, about changing the leadership of Kaduna State in 2019 by installing himself as Governor’’.
“The Senator is seeking a lifeline, in the vain belief that ratcheting up rascally actions will bring him attention and relief from the mooted National reconciliation efforts”.
“It is clear that he can’t be cured of his obsession to be governor of Kaduna State at all cost, whether through betrayal of trust, treachery, or deceit, but he should know that the State is not for sale because ordinary people, including in Hunkuyi’s Kudan Local government area, now know that governance can work for them.
“Hunkuyi has on three previous elections failed to get himself elected as governor, yet he flaunts false claims that it was him that got El-Rufai elected in 2015.”
The government said it would send all political traders within the State into retirement, as it will not be swayed by their drowning antics, NAN also reported.
Governor El-rufai’s spokesman, Samuel Aruwan, said in a statement issued on Thursday also that no one would pay heed to the attention-seeking gambits of desperate politicians who have steadily been demystified in the State.
He warned that rascally actions being undertaken by these traders in the hope of getting a lifeline from reconciliation moves would not be rewarded.
