A renown chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Barrister Kunle Sulyman made a revelation over the controversial Ile Arugbo property purportedly owned by Late Dr. Olusola Saraki. The septuagenarian said that the land was acquired from Jiddah family by the military regime for public us.
He further revealed that Asa Investments – the acclaimed owner of the property was a non existing private company said to be owned Dr. Olusola Saraki was used to lord over public property – stressing that the land belongs to Kwara State Government.
First and foremost I am Barrister Kunle Sulyman from my introduction am a lawyer by profession and I am also a politician likewise a businessman. Being a politician I am familiar with everything on Ile Arugbo.
The land in question belongs to the Kwara state government. It was acquired by the military regime from the Jiddah family of Ilorin and it was acquired for public purpose with the intention of building a second phase Secretariat, civil service clinic and the parking lot.
Firstly, it is wrong for the government to acquire a piece of land from the land owning family and now reallocate it to a private individual. Once a land is acquired for public purposes it must be used for the said purpose and not for any individual.
The contract of the first and second phase of the Secretariat was duly awarded and it was awarded to Alhaji Ado Ibrahim who is now the Ohinoyi of Ebira land. When it was awarded to him, he layed the foundation and the pillars which are still there up till now. But before the completion of the Secretariat, the military regime left office. In 1979 when Late Alhaji Adamu Attah became the governor, he contested for the ticket with Ado Ibrahim under the NPN. Both Attah and Ado were brothers from the same parents but the younger brother Attah won the ticket and eventually became the governor.
Because of the enmity between the two brothers, the governor then in person of Late Alhaji Adamu Attah frustrated the contract and refuse to release money, so that his brother would not be able to complete the Secretariat project and the contract was eventually revoked since the project was not done, the land became unoccupied for a long period of time. Because the land was opposite the Late Dr Olusola Saraki’s house, a lot of people who came for assistance do stay on the land because it was an open space, so the crowd usually extend to the land. I could remember vividly during the reign of the late waziri who I work closely with, some local government chairmen attempted to build a shed for people to stand under instead of waiting under the sun. Baba Saraki vehemently rejected the offer and he told them the land belongs to the government and not him, he emphasized that their efforts would be wasted if the government decides to use the land after they build the shade. Throughout the reign of baba Saraki, he never claimed ownership of the land.
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When his son became the governor, around 2006, without any application on land for allocation as there was no record of anyone applying for the land. Bukola has a governor allocated the land, there was only a letter of offer to ASA investment, in the offer letter, it was noted that the land was given to them on the subject that certain fees were paid and the money were meant to be paid and other conditions attached must be fulfilled within 90 days and or have land revoked. The record showed there was letter of offer but no letter of acceptance from the company, no amount was paid by the company.
The ministry of land did not issue the Right of Occupancy (R of O) or certificate of occupancy (C of O) due to non fulfilment of the conditions attached to the letter of offer. In law, when there is offer, there must be acceptance and acceptance can’t be fulfilled if the conditions attached on the offer are not complied to.
After sometimes, some squatters decided to use the land, built a shed which people referred to as Ile Arugbo where the elderly ones could relax. Based on this, people refer to it as old people’s home. It is not old people’s home neither is anybody’s home, no old people live there as there are no rooms or beddings used for sleeping, it is just a four corner shade people who come to collect peanuts from them used in sitting down.
After the swearing in of Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, there were a lot of petitions from people especially Kwarans on the issue of lands illegally occupied or sold by the previous administration. Based on the petitions, the governor set up a committee called the Recovery of Government property committee which was led by Sen. Makanjuola Ajadi. In the cause of the committee’s investigation, it was discovered that the land was being used illegally as there was no R of O nor C of O, therefore the land is a government property and it should be taken back by the government.
The governor in his wisdom rather than taking laws into his hands took the matter to the state assembly and the house affirmed that the land has no owners and recommended the government to retrieve the land, based on these facts the government demolished the four corner shade that was there and everybody including Bukola Saraki said the governor has crossed the line. He started daring the government as if he is more powerful than the governor, he claimed it was his father’s property, a property the father never claimed during his lifetime.
Due to noise of the people, some of us took the initiative to go to the corporate affairs commission (CAC), to check whether ASA investment was truly registered.
Our findings showed us that ASA investment was never registered, it is not an existing company and the letter of offer bearing ASA investment was a scam as there was no company registered with that name. A non existing company does not have the right to own a land.
Further findings showed us that they were two companies with ASA as their parent name.
There is one company named ASA investment holding which belongs to ASA local government with its headquarters at Afon, it is not the one which was offered the land. The second one is ASA investment limited which is registered and its directors are Alhaji Alabi Agoro and Alhaja Bodunrin Alaro of No 11 Agbaji lane, Ilorin. These are the owners of ASA investment limited. The one which was offered letter of offer (Asa investment) is located at Ilofa road, Ilorin but this is not registered with the CAC.
It is saddening that Bukola Saraki is saying the governor has crossed the line, and he is claiming the land offered to ASA investment is his father’s property. The government had nobody to contact when it was during its investigation.
If truly there is a owner for the property they can decide to challenge the government’s decision at the court.