Kano golf club tackles govt over revocation of land title

The Kano Golf Club has raised alarm that the state government has concluded plans to revoke a golf course title and allocate the same land for development of shopping plazas and a hotel.

But the state government through its Bureau for Land Management said the true position was that the Certificate of Occupancy (CofO) expired in 2019 based on the state’s laws.

Speaking to journalists, Ahmed Rufai Tanko, the chairman of the club’s caretaker committee, said the club which was established in 1908 had an existing CofO issued to it in 1979 for 99 years, hence that it was surprising the government was claiming the lease was for 40 years.

He said, “No legal or moral justification for the revocation of the title; no overriding public interest for the revocation, and we therefore appeal to people in the public and private sectors to come to the rescue of one of the surviving green spaces left in the metropolis,” adding that instead of the government to be contemplating revocation, it ought to be making effort to see to the club’s designation as a heritage site for Kano and Northern Nigeria, the place being the oldest in West Africa.

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But reacting, the government in statements by the Bureau of Land and the Commissioner for Information and Internal Affairs, Muhammad Garba, said the news of revocation was a misrepresentation of facts, insisting that the CofO of the club expired in 2019.

“The oldest golf course’ term of title issued on April 6, 1979, has expired and the bureau has communicated to the club about the expiration of its title and 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,” Garba said.

While further debunking the story, the commissioner said the status of the club remained, and called on the public to be wary of agents of destabilisation bent on creating confusion in the state.