Sulaiman Kayode Yusuf, (aka Maja), a former Commissioner in Kwara State, has narrated how he acquired a government chalet at 2, Peter Tokula Street, GRA, Ilorin in 2004.
Yusuf, told Justice Olabanji Orilonise-led Judicial Panel of Inquiry on sales of Kwara State assets, that he had occupied the chalet which he later acquired until now.
“When I was given an appointment in 2003, the government allocated the two bedroom flat property to me in 2004 when there were no windows, no doors and asbestos,” he told the panel.
“It was sold to me at the rate of N8.8m, I installed everything in the house, but the title was issued to me in March 2016.”
DAILY POST reports that government chalets are usually meant for visiting dignitaries to the state, as they are purposely built to save the cost of perpetually accommodating such important guests in hotels.
Yusuf, however, agreed with the panel’s counsel, Joseph Bamigboye, SAN, that government chalets are reserved for government’s guests to save hotel cost, but alleged that the state executive council approved the sales of the chalets at that period.
Answering a question by the panel’s chairman whether the property was valued before it was allocated to him, Yusuf said, ” It was valued, but the then government did not tell him the amount it was valued before he was asked to pay N8.8m.
Yusuf, also a onetime chairman of the state Local Government Service Commission, pleaded with the panel to consider his health and allocate another apartment to him before taking over the chalet from him.
The former commissioner was also discovered to be illegally using two vehicles with official number plates years after leaving government.
Commenting on the two vehicles found within his premises, he disclosed that the bus was given to him from government house for campaign in those days, but admitted deliberately putting government number plate on it, while the 307 car ” was an abandoned car that the Ministry of Finance auctioned to me at the rate of N70,000.
” When the panel visited my house, I explained to them that the bus was for campaign, but I was the one who wrote the government house number on it.
” The other one was actually a government number on the abandoned car that the ministry of finance sold to me at about N70,000.
” It is nothing to write home about. In fact, they have removed the top engine,” Yusuf added.
