A Federal High Court sitting in Kano, presided by Justice SA Amobeda, has ordered Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf and it agents to stop demolishing structures and property in the State.
After assuming office on May 29, the State Government started systematically demolishing properties that the former Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje had sanctioned, branding them as illegal structures.
The demolition is causing disturbances in the State.
The court granted a Motion Ex-Parte, filled by Saminu Muhammad, a Kano citizen, through his counsel, seeking to protect specific buildings along BUK Road from being demolished by the Kano State Government.
Amobeda specifically ordered the government to halt plans for demolishing the applicant’s property, located on No. 41 and 43 Salanta, along BUK Road, Kano.
The Kano State’s Attorney-General, Solicitor General, Governor, the state government, and the state Bureau for Land Management are respondents joined in the suit.
Other defendants in the case include: Kano State Urban Planning and Development, Authority, Inspector-General of Police, Nigeria Police Force, Commissioner of Police, Commandant General of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps
The court ordered an accelerated hearing of the case and adjourned the suit to July 10, 2023, after listening to the motion moved by the applicant’s counsel, Prof. Nasiru Aliyu, SAN.
Quoting from the court’s order, Justice Amobeda stated, “That Order of this Court is hereby made in the interim, restraining the Respondents by themselves, agents, servant or proxies whatsoever called from encroaching, trespassing, entering, invading, demolishing or revoking the Applicant’s titles or doing any other act in respect of the Applicant’s property.”