The senator representing Kaduna Noth Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Suleiman Hunkuyi, on Wednesday, alleged that Governor Nasir El- Rufai had started a fresh plot to demolish his personal house on Inuwada Wada Road, Ugwan Rimi, Kaduna North Local Government Area of the state. On Wednesday evening, the senator in his twitter handle displayed the fresh grand rent bill sent to him by the Kaduna State Geographic Information Service.
The agency asked the senator to pay the grand rent within 30 days of the receipt of the said bill. Hunkuyi in his twitter handle said, Once again, @GovKaduna Malam @ elrufai has sent a ridiculous bill to me for a purported ground rent of my personal house at Inuwa Wada to the tune of N30 m to be paid within 30 days, failure to do so might probably result to another demolition like he did to my other property”The said bill was also displayed on the twitter handle of the embattled senator. The bill which was addressed to “Alhaji Suleiman Uthman of 18 A Inuwa Wada Road and dated 20 th February, 2018, indicated that, Hunkuyi owed the state a grand rent of N31.4 m from 1995 to date.
The bill signed on behalf of the Director General of the KADGIS, urged the senator to pay the said grand rent within 30 days. The bill read, "You are therefore requested to pay the total of N 31,467,861.6. You are also expected to pay this amount at any commercial bank into the KADGIS PAYDirect platform. This bill should be paid within 30 days please.”However, in another tweet, Hunkuyi said he had since last year paid his dues to the Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service and that he had receipt to back his claim. Hunkuyi said the request by the state government for another N 30 m was a blatant display of abuse of power by El-Rufai.
"As of last year 2017, I've paid my dues to the Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service and they have duly issued me receipts to that effect. This letter today demanding N30 m within 30 days is draconian and indeed blatant display of abuse of power as arrogantly portrayed by @elrufai” Hunkuyi tweeted. When contacted, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Samuel Aruwan, could not be reached on phone as his cell phone indicated that it was not available and there was no response to a text message to his phone as of the time of filing this report (20: 57pm).
However, a competent source at the Kaduna Geographic Information Service, confirmed that it was true that the agency served the senator with the said bill for grand rent. The source who pleaded anonymity, maintained that the agency had the mandate to restore order across the state. "This is an ongoing exercise and there is nothing special about the senator's being served with grand rent bill. Is it because he is a senator ?”The Kaduna State Government on Wednesday dared Hunkuyi to challenge the demolition of his property housing the headquarters of the factional All Progressives Congress headquarters in court.
The Special Adviser to Governor on Political and Inter governmental Affairs, Uba Sani, who stated this in an interview with journalists in Abuja on Wednesday, insisted that the demolition was legal. He stated that contrary to reports in the media, the building did not belong to a faction of the APC but a company. Sani also said that there was no APC faction in the state, adding that the party had only one executive council, which was recognised by the National Working Committee. Sani stated, "The building belongs to a company . The demolition is not persecution because if we regard it as persecution , we will also regard as persecution the demolition of houses of over 100 people”
He said that the same law that was violated by Hunkuyi was violated by other people, whose houses were demolished. Sani added. "He is senator. He is big man. He can go to the media. That is why people are talking about this issue. I can say confidently we enforced the law. We have the law on our side. If he feels aggrieved, he can go to court. I can assure you that when he goes to court, he will meet the fact that we took the action in accordance with the law.”The governor's aide, who wondered why the senator raised the demolition of his house on the floor of the Senate, said that Hunkuyi did not fight for other people whose houses were demolished in Kaduna and Zaria.
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