Protest: APC chieftain condemns looting of Kano ICT hub
From Desmond Mgboh, Kano
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former Commissioner of Rural and Community Development in Kano State, Musa Ilyasu Kwankwaso, has condemned the looting of a newly constructed ICT hub belonging to the Nigeria Communications Commission in the state.
The multi-million Naira hub was among a number of government facilities destroyed by hoodlums who took advantage of the #EndBadGovernance protest in the state to pursue their own agenda.
Speaking to journalists, Kwankwaso regretted that Kano has lost a fortune on account of the destruction of the facility, which was scheduled for commissioning on 6 August 2024. He estimated that more than 11,000 persons and institutions would have variously benefited from its value chains if it had been commissioned and put to use.
“This is very shameful; it is a shame on us to have vandalised and destroyed that multimillion Naira project,” he declared.
He sympathised with the families of those killed in the shootings and enjoined their relatives, including the injured, to seek redress in court and ask for compensation from the state government. He also blamed the state Governor, Abba Kabiru Yusuf, for his decision to invite the protesters to the Government House.
Kwankwaso also attributed a share of the present hardship to the 36 Governors, saying that they had not done as much as the Federal Government in the fight to alleviate poverty in their various states.
He argued that it is an open secret that they directly benefited from the removal of the fuel subsidy initiated by the Federal Government but had not done much to close the gaps of hardship occasioned by the policy in their states.
He recalled that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had, in his speech, stated that Governors had received about N570 billion but observed that Nigerians had not felt the impacts of that size of money disbursed to them.
“With this size of money, Nigerians should not be crying of hunger. There should not be this level of hardship if the disbursed money had been properly utilised in human development projects,” he reasoned.
“I want we, the masses, to understand that President Tinubu and his Vice, Kashim Shetima, mean well for the people of the country. They are trying their best in the face of the present situation,” he declared.
