How Ilorin land was hijacked by Saraki – Kwara Govt

How Ilorin land was hijacked by Saraki – Kwara Govt

Thursday, January 2, 2020 10:09 am


The late Dr. Olusola Saraki

Kwara State government has revealed how plots of land meant for public use was hijacked by the late politician, Dr Olusola Saraki

The government made the revelation while defending its decision to revoke the Ilofa Road, GRA, Ilorin plots of land allegedly acquired illegally by the late Dr. Saraki.

In a statement by the Director General of the Bureau of Lands, Ibrahim Salman, the government said: “The entire land was acquired in the 1970s for Overriding Public Interest and same was initially designed to host the Phase II of the state secretariat. The construction of the said state secretariat Phase II was actually commenced and it was at superstructure level before same was abandoned.

“The entire land was later redesigned in the 1980s for the construction of a Civil Service Clinic, state secretariat, and a parking lot for both the clinic and the state secretariat.

“The clinic was subsequently constructed in 1982, while the remaining plots of land were conceived for the expansion of the clinic into a full-fledged hospital.

“The dream of the state government was stalled when part of the land slated for the parking lot was spuriously allocated in principle to Asa Investment for commercial purposes.

“From available records, the allocation was not based on a formal application, nor application forms filled; there was no evidence of payment for the said allocation, as stipulated in the letter of allocation in principle, and consequently, no right of occupancy was ever issued to the company.

“Furthermore, in flagrant abuse of the allocation terms, the company took possession of the land and constructed what is today known as ‘Ile Arugbo’ on a part of the land that was designed as parking lot and later conceived to host the expansion of the Civil Service Clinic into a full-fledged hospital.

“Following a resolution of the Kwara State House of Assembly mandating him to revoke/withdraw the spurious allocation, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq recently signed an instrument to reclaim the land on the ground that same was unlawfully allocated to a private company, contrary to the public purpose of its acquisition and occupied in breach of the terms of allocation.

“This statement is intended to state the facts on the land recently revoked/withdrawn by the state government, as contained in our records.”


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