Garba Kwankwaso, the younger brother of former Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso, has dragged incumbent Governor Abba Yusuf to court over a land dispute in Kano state.
According to court documents, other respondents include the state commissioner for Land and Physical Planning as 2nd defendant; Kano State Urban Planning and Development Authority, KNUPDA as 3rd defendant; the Attorney General of Kano State as 4th defendants and Unknown Persons as 5th defendants.
The lawsuit seeks an interlocutory injunction to prevent the governor and other defendants from taking any action that could harm their interests in the disputed land.
The land in question, located in Kwankwasiyya City, was initially allocated to WAECO Nigeria Limited during Rabiu Kwankwaso’s administration.
However, his successor, Abdullahi Ganduje, revoked the allocation after a 2017 investigation by the Kano State Public Complaint and Anti-Corruption Commission revealed that WAECO was not a legal entity at the time of the allocation.
The Kano State Public Complaint and Anti-Corruption Commission had revealed that the actual company behind the “WAECO” acronym was “Water and Agricultural Engineering Company Limited”, in which the former governor and his brother were alleged to be directors.
After the revocation, Mr Ganduje relocated Mallam Kato Square to a portion of the land and returned the remaining hectares to the original owners, including the famous Dantata family.
According to sources, the incumbent governor of the state, Abba Yusuf, however resisted pressure to revoke the land, measuring over 100 hectares, and return it to WAECO NIGERIA LIMITED.
Following the governor’s alleged refusal, Garba Kwankwaso then filed an application at a Kano High Court, pursuant to Order 38 Rule 4,(1), Order 39 Rule 1 (2), Order 45 Rule 14 of The Kano State High Court Rules, 2014, praying for the Following orders:
“1. AN ORDER OF INTERLOCUTORY INJUNCTION restraining the defendants/respondents either by themselves, their agents, privies, servants, representatives and/or contractors or whosoever acting on their behalf or instructions from entering upon, demarcating, beaconing, partitioning, building, allocating any part or doing any act adverse to the interest of the Plaintiffs/Applicants on the plaintiffs/Applicants’ piece of land lying and situate along Western By-Pass at Kwankwasiyya 11, Kano, Kano State particularly described in Survey Plan No. TP/KNUPDA/333 delineated red and marked as WAECO NIGERIA LIMITED covered by Certificate of Occupancy No. LKN/COM/2013/84 (hereinafter called “The Subject (Property”) pending the determination of the Substantive suit filed by the Plaintiffs/Applicants.
“2. And such other order(s) as this Honourable Court may deem fit to make in the circumstances of this case.”
The application is supported by a nine-paragraph affidavit deposed to by one Faith Job, a litigation secretary in law firm of P.A. Attabor & Co., counsel to the Kwankwasos.
Granting the order on November 13, Justice Usman Na’abba adjourned the case till November 27 for hearing of the application of the interlocutory injunction.
