By Abdullahi Yusuf
In Nigeria, election periods usually come with so many things; some of them interesting; some desperate, and some outrightly twisted, misrepresented, and therefore, dismissible.
Many of such developments that occur on Election Eves are often found to be fabricated to score cheap political points in order to advance the interest of one political party or another as the citizens go to the polls.
A case in point is a story circulated by an online publication, The Daily Nigerian, that the Kano State Government had revoked the land title of the Kano Club located in the Kano metropolis, which turned out to be a misrepresentation of the facts of the matter.
The State Commissioner for Information and Internal Affairs, Malam Muhammad Garba, issued a statement in Kano on Wednesday in order to set the records straight.
In the statement, Garba debunked the story as a mere misrepresentation of facts to settle political scores.
He said that in the content of the letter sent to the owners of the club, there was no mention of revocation but the expiration of the term of the title of the land in question, on 6 April 2019.
He said as the statutory agency saddled with the responsibility of land management and informed by the reform in land administration in the state, the State Bureau for Land Management ensures payment of ground rent by property owners as well as renewal of land titles.
The Commissioner added that the oldest Golf Course’s term of title issued on April 6, 1979, had expired, and that the Bureau had communicated to the club about the expiration of its title and the need for urgent settlement of the ground rent, “only for an online publication, owned by an element of the opposition in the state to twist the story in his favour.”
He said the story which emanated from the owner of Daily Nigerian, a staunch member of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) would stop at nothing to discredit the ruling party in the state.
To further dismiss the story, the commissioner said the status of the club remains and called on the public “to be wary of agents of destabilization bent on creating confusion in the state.”
He, therefore, called on the people to reject the fabricated story in its entirety.
Now that the State Government through the Commissioner for Information and Internal Affairs has set the records straight as par the Club Kano land title, the good people of Kano State, and indeed, other Nigerians, are expected to disregard all the contents of the twisted story.
The report, desperate and ill-timed as it was, cannot change the impending victory of the ruling party, the APC, in the state, come Saturday 18 March 2023.
On that day, the people of the state will come out en masse to vote for the party’s governorship candidate, Dr.Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna, and His Running Mate, Hon. Murtala Sule Garo as well as all candidates for the House of Assembly elections running on the platform of the APC.
This will happen to further dismiss the circulation of the twisted Kano Club story and indeed, any other negative materials that might be peddled against the ruling party. No shaking
