Kwara State governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq has knocked Senator Bukola Saraki over his diatribes on the urban renewal programme of the administration.
"The urban renewal programme of the Abdulrazaq administration, which includes restoring or upgrading the original plan of the capital city as much as possible to fit the current realities, was long due," according to the chief press secretary to the governor Rafiu Ajakaye.
Ajakaye added, " It is what a responsible government should have done many years ago when the first Ilorin master plan expired in early 2000.
"The chaotic and unplanned slum that our great capital city had become until recently is a dirty relic of the Bukola Saraki years when just anyone in the corridors of powers or their cronies could patch on any available land to erect structures with scant regard for any urban planning code. The result is the environmental disaster seen in many parts of Ilorin and environs and its consequences for lives and properties.
"The Governor has no history of cornering public properties for himself or his family. What he has done so far within the law is to courageously reclaim for Kwarans what rightly belong to them, but were taken away or dubiously converted for private use during the reigns of Saraki and his cronies. From the dubious sales of lands at the judges quarters to the Amusement Park, Galadimawa Estate, Kwara Liaison Offices in Kaduna and Lagos, Flower Garden, and Ile Arugbo, which they sold to themselves or mismanaged, the list of the heist is endless and mind-boggling.
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"The next time Mr. Saraki is in the state, he should have the courage to see what the government has made of the Flower Garden and the Ile Arugbo land that was stolen from the people. Sprouting right there is a multi-storey building that will house a one-of-its-kind hospital to improve the quality of healthcare delivery for the people and strengthen economic prosperity.
"It is not surprising to see Mr. Saraki foaming at the mouth because the reform has once again recovered for the people a land whose approval was for a car park, per the signature of his own successor Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, but was wrongly converted to another thing entirely. Reckless behaviours such as this were the features of the Saraki years, and we expected nothing less from him.
"Restoring sanity in a growing capital city like Ilorin requires courageous leadership that will not be stonewalled by the blackmail of the likes of Saraki. The urban renewal of Governor Abdulrazaq is being done with full regard for the law, pragmatic empathy, and our context as a people just as we saw in the years of the late Major General George Innih who took Ilorin to the next level in urban renewal and physical development."
