Kano State Urban Planning and Development Authority (KNUPDA) has said those claiming to be owners of the structures demolished at the Gurum Gawa community in Kumbotso local government area of the state violated the provisions of KNUPDA law and failed to appear after being served three notices.
KNUPDA had on Sunday demolished structures allegedly erected on 32 plots of land by 23 plaintiffs despite a Kano State High Court order restraining it from demolishing the structures.
KNUPDA legal adviser, Salisu Tahir, in an audio message sent to LEADERSHIP yesterday clarified that those claiming ownership of the property demolished were issued three notices, but failed to respond until when they were earmarked for demolition before they showed up.
He said on their appearance, they failed to present the approval granted to them to proceed with erecting the said structures but later presented a letter of grant from the government which after investigation from the Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning was discovered to be fake.
Tahir said, “KNUPDA Law 2011 in sections 12-14 state that no one has the right to build or demolish any structure(s) until given permission by KNUPDA.
“So, since they erected the structures without following due process, we went ahead to demolish them.
“Aside from the demolition, when we meet them, we shall apply section 15 of the KNUPDA 2011 law, which states that when you violated sections 12, 13 and 14 of the law, it becomes an offence and the punishment is a fine of N10,000 or two years’ imprisonment or both.
“We are searching for them so that we can use the law on them.
“Also, we followed due process before embarking on the demolition exercise in that location. We have informed them to remove since but they ignored us; so when they come, all that is expended in the process of the demolition exercise, they will repay us back because they didn’t follow the process and provision of the law.”
