The Kano State Government has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice to urgently review the alleged alienation of the Afforestation Programme Coordinating Unit complex in Jambulo, Kano.
The state Commissioner for Water Resources, Environment and Climate Change, Dr Dahir M. Hashim, made the call on Friday while addressing journalists in Kano on reports of an attempt to take possession of parts of the federal environmental facility.
Hashim urged the President and the Attorney-General, who now oversees matters previously handled by the dissolved Presidential Implementation Committee on the Alienation of Federal Government Properties, to take necessary legal steps to protect the complex and preserve it for its original environmental and public purposes.
He also called on the Federal Ministry of Environment to maintain its opposition to the alleged alienation, challenge any eviction order through available legal channels and conduct a comprehensive survey, demarcation and documentation of the property.
According to him, the APCU complex is not an abandoned government property but a strategic federal environmental facility established in 1988, with its origins traced to the Arid Zone Afforestation Programme of the late 1970s.
He said the facility had served for decades as a regional centre for coordinating afforestation activities and training forestry personnel involved in combating desertification across northern Nigeria.
The commissioner expressed concern over reports that portions of the property had allegedly been allocated to private interests despite objections from the Federal Ministry of Environment.
He said any attempt to fragment the complex would undermine Nigeria’s efforts to combat desertification, land degradation and climate change.
Hashim said reports of an order seeking the removal of APCU, the National Agency for the Great Green Wall and the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency from the premises were particularly troubling.
“Any attempt to convert this strategic environmental facility into private residential or commercial plots is against the overriding public interest,” he said.
He added that the complex had been deliberately retained by the Federal Government as an operational base for coordinating the fight against desertification across 11 frontline states.
Beyond its buildings, Hashim said the facility’s mature plantations represent one of the remaining significant concentrations of established vegetation in the expanding Kano metropolis.
He said the trees help with carbon sequestration, reduction of urban heat, improvement of air quality, biodiversity conservation and protection against wind and soil erosion.
The commissioner further noted that the complex currently houses the relocated operational headquarters of the National Agency for the Great Green Wall, which was moved from Abuja to Kano.
According to him, the relocation has returned the facility to full strategic use, providing administrative offices, technical facilities, an environmental laboratory, residential accommodation and an operational base closer to communities affected by land degradation.
Hashim warned that removing the environmental agencies from the complex would undermine the purpose behind the Federal Government’s decision to relocate NAGGW to Kano.
He reaffirmed the Kano State Government’s support for the Federal Ministry of Environment, NAGGW, NESREA and APCU in protecting the property.
“The Kano State Government stands firmly with the Federal Ministry of Environment, NAGGW, NESREA and APCU in protecting this national environmental asset,” he said.
He maintained that strategic public environmental assets should remain in public service rather than being converted to private residential or commercial use.
(The Whistler)
