TheCable

Suleiman Hukunyi, owner of the building demolished at 11B Sambo close, GRA, Kaduna, has raised the alarm that the state government is threatening another of his property.

Hukunyi, a serving senator, leads one of the factions of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.

The demolished house was used as the secretariat of his own faction of the ruling party which handed a six-month suspension to Nasir el-Rufai, governor of the state, for alleged anti-party activities.

Although Ibrahim Husseini, director-general of the Kaduna Geographic Information Service (KADGIS), said the building was removed for “flagrant violations of land use act”, critics said the move had a political undertone.

Hours after the demolition, Hukunyi said he had forgiven el-Rufai, whom he accused of masterminding the act.

However, on Wednesday evening, the lawmaker said the government had given him a 30-day ultimatum to pay a N30.4m ground rent for his house at 18A, Inuwa Wada Road, Gabasawa, Anguwan Rimi GRA, Kaduna.

“Once again, the governor of Kaduna state, Malam Nasir El-Rufai has sent a ridiculous bill to me for a purported ground rent of my personal house at Inuwa Wada to the tune of N30Million to be paid within 30 days, failure to do so might probably result to another demolition like he did on my other property,” he said.

Dated February 20, 2018, and signed by the director-general of KADGIS, the notice indicated that the ground rent is for a period of 24 years, from 1995 to 2018.

“You are therefore, requested to pay a total of N31,467,861.60. You are also expected to pay this amount at any commercial bank into the KADGIS PAYDirect platform. This bill should be settled within 30 days please” the notice read.