Demolition: Kano govt vows to appeal N30bn judgment

Kano State Government has vowed to appeal a federal high court judgment that awarded N30bn against it over the demolition of some shops at the Eid ground in the metropolis.

SOLACEBASE had reported that a Kano Federal High Court ordered the Kano State Government to pay the Incorporated Trustees of Massallacin Eid Shop Owners the sum of N30bn as compensation for the unlawful demolition of their shops without following due processes laid down by law.

However, in a statement issued by the state Commissioner for Justice, Barr. Haruna Isa Dederi, on Friday, said the government would exercise its right of appeal for the appellate court to void the judgment.

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‘’Don’t also forget that should anyone decide to seek legal redress from a court and gets an injunction in his favor, it does not mean that is the end, the statement said.’’

‘’Right from the onset, we have informed the court that it lacks the jurisdiction to entertain the case. But it went on and entertained the case being all it can do.’’

‘’In anticipation of the outcome of the High Court judgment, we have since prepared our documents to Appeal the judgment at the Federal Appeal Court in Kano.’’

‘’Apart from that there is also a new suit that we filed. The case will commence next week by God’s grace. We petitioned the court that the lands on which the property were erected were illegally obtained.’’

‘’Hence, whatever is going to be presented on that issue is not something that the law will entertain.’’

The statement said ‘’For example, the Federal High Court did not consider the issue of ownership of the land in it’s judgment. Those who sued the government in the matter were in court to prove that their property were illegally demolished. This is their demand from the court. They were not at the court to prove that they are owners of the lands on which they erected property.

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‘’If you review the case you will see that the court did not talk about the aspect of legal land ownership because it knows it has no jurisdiction for that.’’

‘’On the other hand it is this aspect that we have put before the Court, to determine the legality of land ownership. ‘’

‘’They have done their own and we as law-abiding citizens are going to follow the established legal procedure of making an appeal which we have already done.’’

‘’There is no way you can stop the government from acting in the best interest of the public by going to court. ‘’

‘’Laws that have to do with land ownership in the state are under the executive powers of the Governor. There is no law and there is nothing anyone can do to stop the Governor from doing what he did.’’

‘’I want to disabuse the minds of the public from engaging in any form of celebration in this regard that the court has declared that they be paid N30 billion. They should rather wait for the final judgment.

‘’To those who are affected, I want to let you know that the government will never relent in its effort of acting in the interest of the general public. The lands belong to the government and no one is doubting this. Not even the court that gave this judgment has said that the government has no right to the lands. The court only reviewed the issue of payment of damages.’’

‘’That is why I am saying that their prayer is different from the actual issue in the case. Is just that you cannot stop anyone from filing prayer before a court of competent jurisdiction.’’

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‘’But the case we have before the court is that of reviewing the ownership of the land. Were the lands legally issued or not? Is it legally justifiable to fish out public owned property to individuals or not? These are things the court will look into and this is what we are seeking from the court. ‘’

‘’I reiterate that the court did not mention anything about land ownership, it gave it’s judgment on the issue of demolition of property built on the public lands. ‘’

‘’The case was that of my property has illegally been demolished and I want to be paid damages and not on the issue of ownership of the land. ‘’

‘’Now we are going to court to resolve the issue of ownership of the land whether they legally belonged to them or not. ‘’

‘’The position of the state government on this is that it does not accept the judgment and is going to appeal. We have since filed our appeal on the case.’’