Ex Senate President : I beg nobody for freedom 

Below are the excerpts of the tweets by Alhaji Yusuf Olaniyonun, the Media Aide to the Ex  Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, via his Twitter handle @Yusupholaniyonu in response to a propaganda being peddled by the pseudo agents of Gov. Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq and state government on the out of court settlement as advised by the judge presiding over Ile-Arugbo demolition case.

I have just observed the dirty propaganda being bandied about by KWSG, Gov AA and their agents over the out of court settlement initiated by the High Court into the case on the demolition of Ile Arugbo.

The KWSG spin doctors are making it look like the claimants in the party begged for out of court settlement. I can say it categorically that Dr. Bukola Saraki has been out of the country in the last two weeks.

— lawyers to Asa Investments simply followed the advice of the judge who on Jan 15, according to court records stated that: “By virtue of the provisions of section 22 of the High Court Law Cap H2, Laws of Kwara State 2006, I am appealing to the parties to explore the possibility of settling this case out of court. One of the parties is to take the lead in this direction moreso when the Hon. A. G. Kwara State has said that they are not averse to settling if the claimant makes the move”.

— The matter is already in court and the Sarakis have nothing to gain from the quick resolution of the case. It is not as if they have any commercial venture on the land yielding any money which its demolition or a protracted litigation has disrupted.

In fact, it is the KWSG and Gov AA that are in a hurry to end the huge distraction and bad PR that the revocation and the ill-advised, Ill-conceived, ill-motivated and childish decision to demolish Ile Arugbo has caused them.

Those who are spinning for KWSG and AA are struggling to make it look like the Sarakis begged for the out of court settlement . They are missing the key points.

There are issues that need to be resolved in court.

These include: 1. Is a Revocation order the same thing as a demolition order?

2. Can KWSG lawfully demolish a property without the necessary statutory notices?

Is it proper for a Govt to move into a property where many citizens are lawfully gathered at 3am for the purpose of demolishing it? Is it not anarchy and reckless impunity for the govt to deploy security officials who were using live ammunition and chemical weapons (teargas canisters) on defenceless women and youth? Ile Arugbo’s demolition goes beyond a land issue. It is an issue of public order, safety and health. It is an issue of whether democracy allows those in govt to act arbitrarily.

So, the spin doctors should keep quiet and stop behaving as if the rest of Nigerians are fools. Like a Yoruba adage says “if the wicked man gives account of a case, it is not his fellow wicked man that will sit as a judge over the case”.

Yusuph Olaniyonu
Comm. Strategist, Journalist, lawyer and Public Affairs Analyst.