Nigeria: El-Rufai Commences Demolition Of Houses In Kaduna

Kaduna (Nigeria) – Mixed reactions have trailed the action of Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State on demolition of private houses erected within premises of public institutions, including schools, hospitals and libraries.

The state government had given owners of such structures to remove them on, or before August 5, or face the wrath of the law.

In a discussion on Kaduna State Media Corporation (radio) on Tuesday, Special Assistant to the Governor on Media and Publicity, Samuel Aruwan reiterated that the state government will go ahead and recover all such lands acquired by individuals

“This government cannot allow the encroachment of schools and hospitals lands to continue. For instance, when we visited the state library in Zaria and Alhudahuda College, private buildings have almost taken over the institutions. This has serious effect on the learning atmosphere of such institutions.” He said

On Wednesday August 5, the bulldozers moved to Alhudahuda College in Zaria and commenced razing down structures, leaving people crying, some with no place to go.

Since then, many citizens have continued to react on social media, especially the Facebook on the action of the Governor..

Below are some of the comments

1. Ali attahiru wrote;
“SAMUEL ARUWAN IS RUNNING OUT OF TARGET———— SUNYI AMAI ZAI LASHE
You should avoid hiding under the bed, these are what MAIRUSAU said about demolition of properties in ALHUDAHUDA ;
KOKAI WAYE , KO KAIME KAKE TAKAMA DASHI , KO ME KAKE KEWAYA DASHI WALLAHI SAI MUNRUSHE .
But Samuel Aruwan was denying the word RUSHEWA and replacing it with recovering the land not rushewa.
My question to ARUWAN how can you recover the land ?
Properties developed in the land are not seen as properties by you?
Samuel Aruwan was denying the word rushewa but replacing it with recovering , Mairushewa is now Mairecovery .
Aruwan don see pepper denying demolition of houses in an interview in an Hausa program called Anche kache.”

2. Nura Usman wrote:
“This is not what we voted you for. This is Madness of the highest rank.
You are More than 2months in office (70days) in office, you are yet to executive a single Physical developmental project for the people of Kaduna State but here you are demolishing the houses of poor masses that voted you to power for the
progress of their Kaduna State .
I Challenge Nasir Elrufai or any of his hunt dogs in social media or whoever can, to come out and tell or show us anything good that came from Elrufai apart from putting
pains in the lives of kaduna people.
Someone should tell him even fir’auna (Pharon) of the days of Musa (mosses) A.S that claim to be God has done worst than him and still die with some people still breathing not to talk of him that is not even up to an ‪#‎Ant‬ of those days.
Elrufai and all those his vuvuzelars should have a rethink.”

3. Jerry D. Ishaya wrote:
“We have two categories of potential victims . Those were genuinely allocated lands by previous government and those who occupied government carved out spaces. Let me give you an instance. During makarfi, secondary school and a hospital in Tafawa Belewa way was converted to university. The doctors’ quaters was allocated to some doctors and they paid certain amounts to government account. Some of them could not stay their and they sold their carved out to other private citizens. In such situation what do you do?”

4. Ahmed Aliyu Usamatu wrote:
Is not the Matter Of Politics, were ever u are, who ever did d right thing deserved to be praised. and He who do a wrong thing, condemnation is his reward. Sincerely Speaking, What Rusau is doing to the Non staff of Alhudahuda is the right thing. let’s talk sense and Truth, Not Politics. In the North here, What ever we do or what ever we wanna do as politicians, we follow the steps of our Heroes I.e Sardauna and Co. I believe if Sardauna and His kind are Alive, they will not allow Such thing happen to a School and get their eyes open while watching. But, before they maintain the Houses, who sold the Land for them??? The Government or the School Principal?? If it happens to be the Government, definitely an Alternate place to live MUST be provided for those people, otherWise, they should expect Nothing from the state Government and get back to those that sales the land for them. You have to be Straight Forward and Keep Politics aside before be figure out things like these.

5. Basil Ndubuisi wrote:
Up Kaduna state! We now have the most courageous governor. The most talked about governor. The most prepared governor. Hate him or love him, you just cant be indifferent to El-rufai!”

The government has already sensed the negative comments before they came, amd Aruwan was quick to mention that in the radio discussion when he said “Since after the town hall meeting in Zaria on Sunday, some people have started campaign of calumny that Mr. El-Rufai has come to embark on demolition of houses in Kaduna. But to set the records straight, we are only asking those who illegally occupied government owned institutions’ lands to vacate the land.”