Court slams N30bn fines on Kano govt over illegal demolition

A Federal High Court in Kano has ordered the Kano State Government to pay the Incorporated Trustees of Eid Grand Shop Owners N30 billion as compensation for the unlawful demolition of their properties.

The huge fine was to cover the unlawful demolition of the shops without following due processes laid down by law.

The court ruled that the state government carried out the demolition exercise without recourse to the law.

Blueprint reported how the Kano State governor, Abba Yusuf, ordered the demolition of certain properties across Kano Metropolis, which he claimed the immediate past government sold illegally.

Some of the properties demolished include a three-storey building with 90 shops on a race course at the Nasarawa GRA. Daula Hotel is a three-star hotel reconstructed by the Ganduje administration under a Private Public Partnership arrangement.

The government also demolished another structure, at Hajj Camp, sold to private individuals by the immediate past administration of the state and shops erected in parts of the Kofar Mata, Eid prayer ground.

The owners of the demolished properties sued the Kano government over the demolition.

Some of the traders under the umbrella of the Incorporated Trustees of ‘Massallacin Eid Shop Owners’ challenged the demolition at the Federal High Court.

The judge, Samuel Amobeda, ordered the government to pay the traders N30 billion as compensation for the illegal demolition of their properties.

The judge said the action of the Kano State Government against the applicants was barbaric and unconstitutional.

Governor Yusuf on assumption of office in late May ordered the demolition of shops, malls and a hotel, saying they violated Kano’s masterplan.

The architectural design of the popular roundabout has become a symbol of Kano state in the media and entertainment industry in the last few years, under his predecessor Abdullahi Ganduje.