Kwara State Government Demolishes Crystal Place Mall * Protesters hurl curses at Governor * Moshood Mustapha Reacts, says, ” Gov Abdulrasaq has come up with his madness again “
By Omowumi Omotosho
The Kwara State government on Sunday night demolished the Crystal Place Mall, owned by former member, Federal House of Representatives, Honorable Moshood Mustapha, after a 3-hour eviction notice was issued to occupants on Saturday.
The agents of the state government carried out the demolition far late in the night during rainfall. It is not clear why the government chose to carry out the demolition at that ungodly hour and in a seemingly surreptitious manner.
It will however be recalled that Ile-Arugbo belonging to political Icon, Late Dr Olusola Saraki was demolished in a similar manner by the state government in January, 2021.
The sudden directive to demolish Moshood Mustapha’s Crystal Place sparked protests and outrage, with demonstrators hurling curses at Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq for what they saw as an unjust move.
In a 5-minute video, released while the demolition was going on, Mustapha who has just been conferred with a high chieftaincy title, “Wakilli of the Ilorin Emirate” by the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, reacted furiously to the destruction of his property. He accused the governor of acting out of political vendetta.
“Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, the governor of Kwara State, has come up with his madness again. He threatened to demolish my summit complex just because of a mere political disagreement. He has lost it completely in Kwara State because he’s been running a one-man show in Kwara politics.”
Mustapha went on to allege that Governor Abdulrazaq has been sidelining other members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and that this demolition was a direct result of his refusal to continue working with the governor. He criticized the governor for leveraging state machinery to settle personal scores.
“At about 7pm this night, they barricaded everywhere, all the corners leading to the shopping complex as if they wanted to go and wage war against Boko Haram. Now at 9pm, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, in collaboration with the Kwara State commissioner of police, took his men, barricaded, sent everybody away, and went in with bulldozers to destroy a property worth a billion Naira.”
Mustapha expressed frustration over the involvement of the Kwara State police in what he described as an illegal demolition, calling on the President of Nigeria to intervene and restore justice.
As the political battle intensifies in Kwara, the demolition of the Crystal Place Mall is likely to have lasting repercussions on the local political landscape, with Mustapha vowing to continue his fight against what he called “a menace” in Kwara State governance.
