AbdulRazaq Buys N400 Million House While Kwara Residents Flee

Governor AbdulRazaq buys and demolishes N400m house to build a retirement home amid rising kidnappings and mass exodus in Kwara.

Atlantic Post

September 4, 2025

3–5 minutes

AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, Araba Femi Sanni, Ilorin, Insecurity, Kidnapping, Kwara State, Public Funds, SaharaReporters

AbdulRazaq Buys N400 Million House and Demolishes It to Build Retirement Home as Insecurity Rises

ABUJA/ILORIN, Nigeria — In a development that exposes a widening gap between public spectacle and private interest, multiple government sources have told SaharaReporters that Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq has purchased a N400 million property on the aptly named AbdulRazaq Road, demolished it and begun construction of what insiders describe as a “personal retirement home” even as whole communities in the state flee daily violence.

The property, said to have been acquired from Chief Olusola Adekanola, a chartered accountant, sits behind a banquet hall and directly opposite the residence of the governor’s brother, AbdulRazaq Alimi.

The address is in the precincts that house some of Kwara’s most powerful political actors, including former Senate President Bukola Saraki and several sitting federal lawmakers.

Sources say the choice of location is deliberate and symbolic, signalling a consolidation of private real estate and public visibility.

Worrying though the purchase appears, the deeper allegation is the manner in which upgrades and public works in and around AbdulRazaq Road are being executed.

Insiders allege the governor has “strategically reconstructed” roads and carried out infrastructure works that conveniently serve the new property and the governor’s family enclave.

The work, they say, is supervised by Engr Araba Oluwafemi Sanni — a civil engineer and media proprietor linked to Flow FM and the Stefolga Group — who is accused of acting as a frontman for the governor’s private projects while simultaneously handling lucrative state contracts, including work on the new Kwara State Secretariat and the Government House main gate.

Those allegations come from the same SaharaReporters investigation.

The timing of this construction has provoked outrage among civil society and residents because it coincides with a dramatic deterioration in public security across the state.

In mid-August SaharaReporters documented a mass exodus from Kwara South after a surge in kidnappings and repeated bandit attacks, particularly in Ifelodun Local Government Area, where entire communities were seen abandoning farms and homes.

Hundreds of families were reported at Oke-Ode garage trying to escape to safer locations.

Security agencies have not been idle, but their operations underline the scale of the problem. Last month security forces staged raids on bandits’ hideouts in Baba-Sango in Ifelodun LGA, freeing dozens and killing some assailants in one operation.

The contrast between high-profile security raids and the everyday reality of abandoned communities sharpens the question many Kwarans are asking: why are resources being channelled into a governor’s private residence at a time when hundreds are dispossessed and vulnerable?

This is not merely a matter of optics. The AbdulRazaq administration has loudly touted major infrastructure and housing ambitions.

The governor has publicly announced a 250-unit housing programme and inspected long-distance road projects in recent months, emphasising physical transformation and urban renewal.

Whether those public programmes and the private works clustered around AbdulRazaq Road draw from the same fiscal pot is now a question that demands documentary answers.

Ethically and legally, the situation merits immediate scrutiny. If state contractors, materials or manpower are being diverted to private construction, there could be breaches of procurement rules and public trust.

The allegation that a private individual with business interests in Flow FM and construction is acting as a “front” for a sitting governor amplifies the problem of accountability.

Journalists and rights groups will be watching whether the state anti-corruption machinery or the national anti-graft agencies will open a formal probe.

Governance is a simple compact: the people pay taxes and expect protection and public goods in return.

When citizens are fleeing homes and farms because of insecurity, a governor’s priority should be the restoration of safety and basic services. Instead, these reports suggest a preoccupation with creating a private enclave.

Attempts to obtain a response from the Kwara State Government were, SaharaReporters says, unsuccessful at the time of filing.

For investigators the next steps are plain:

1. Obtain procurement records for the roadworks and the state secretariat contract;

2. Follow the money trail between Stefolga Group and state agencies;

3. Interview eyewitnesses and displaced residents for on-the-ground corroboration;

4. And press the governor’s office for an accounting of materials, contractors and the source of funding for the AbdulRazaq Road works.

Kwarans deserve answers.

The credibility of a government is measured not by grand inaugurations but by whether it protects the lives and livelihoods of the least secure among its people.