Demolition of Crystal complex political vendetta

The former governorship candidate of the Abundant Nigeria Renewal Party (ANRP) in Kwara State in the 2019 general elections, Dr Abdulmumin Ajia, has described the demolition of Crystal Shopping Complex Ilorin as a political vendetta and a dangerous precedent.

The complex, valued at over N1 billion, was demolished at the weekend and belongs to an estranged political associate of the governor, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq.

Yesterday, at the quarterly inter-ministerial press briefing, the Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the governor, Rafiu Ajakaye, said that the complex was approved in 2013 for a car park, not a shopping complex.

Ajia, an Associate Professor of Business Administration at Lincoln University, Missouri, in the United States of America (USA), said the state, rather than demolition, could have reviewed the terms of approval, especially the monetary aspect, to make more money.

By this, Ajia said the number of staff and middle and small-scale businesses in the complex would still be there while the government’s purse swells.

Condemning the demolition further, he said the state government and its advisers lack business acumen, saying: “The reason given by the State’s Geographic Information System could only be tenable in the cycle of novices with little or no business drive.”
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Ajia, in a statement sent to newsmen via WhatsApp, said: “The recent demolition of the Crystal Shopping Complex along Sulu Gambari Road, Ilorin, is a dangerous precedent and the Kwara governor and the administration that he leads are not well advised.

“If it was not a case of political vendetta, the Kwara government could have issued a citation to Crystal Shopping Complex and its owners, and the Crystal Group, in their response, would have the right in a democratic society to petition the appropriate government agency for a rezoning of the lot in question.

“After rezoning from a car park into a shopping complex, the government ought to ask Crystal Shopping Complex and its owners to pay the appropriate tenement rates, building permits, and taxes as may be applicable.

“Invariably, this will be a win for Kwara. We would bring in more revenue, partner with local businesses to keep and generate more employment for our people, and in the process, we will generate ongoing taxes for our state, thus adding to Kwara’s gross domestic product. This definitely would have been a win-win for all the parties involved.

“The opinion being bandied around that the Crystal Shopping Complex distorts a phantom master plan is not true. Most rational individuals will agree that the Crystal Shopping Complex has more economic potential for Kwara than a car park. If the Crystal Group decides to change their business strategy from a car park to a shopping complex, the right thing would have been to discuss rezoning and the payment of the appropriate fees.

“Pulling down a complex worth about 700,000 dollars is a wrong move by any government, and October 6, 2024, will forever go down in Kwara as a dark day.”

Subsequently, he lambasted the APC governments at both the state and federal levels, saying: “Besides being a failure on economic policies, the APC presidency and many of its state governors are drunk on power and have forgotten the people that gave them power in the first place. Yet, we must remind them that Nigeria, and by extension Kwara, is a commonwealth that belongs to all of its people and not a personal fiefdom of a few citizens.”

The former ANRP governorship candidate, who later joined the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), resigned his membership of the APC in the state last August.