Gombe gov’t suspends land transactions, buildings at state capital
Story from Najibullahi ADAMU
The government of Gombe state has suspended land transactions and buildings at the area designated as ‘Gombe Capital Special Development Zone’ to enable the government to execute its development projects in the state.
Governor Inuwa Yahaya disclosed this on Monday while declaring open a two days stakeholders engagement workshop on land administration organised by the Gombe Geographic Information Systems (GOGIS) at Custodian hotel, Gombe.
He explained that the decision is part of the reforms initiated by the designation of the Gombe capital special development zone adding that, GOGIS has recently conducted a thorough audit of some of the affected layouts.
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According to him, findings from the exercise have revealed several distortions and illegal activities such as blockage of major access roads, sub-division of the federal secretariat plot into personal and individual plots, conversion of areas meant for public facilities such as hospitals, fire service and religious activities into residential plots, encroachment of building lines, illegal sub-division or merger of plots and irrational use of land titles among others.
In addition to that, the Governor noted that he recently approved the revocation of the 274 hectares piece of land located at the west of Hashidu housing estate previously allocated to NNPC but left undeveloped for decades.
“This new layout will be used to accommodate the 250-unit NEDC housing project and the 1,000-unit Family Homes Fund project. The government will provide all necessary modern infrastructure such as access roads, street lights, shopping malls, schools, hospitals etc in order to ensure this layout is developed in line with modern real estate development standards.
“Equally, this new layout will also be used to compensate all people whose land may be affected by the redesign and rectifications to be carried out at the Capital Special Development Zone”. He said.
He however promised that as soon as those exercises are completed, the suspension will be lifted to allow individuals to proceed with the development of their plots in line with the requirements of the law.
The Governor stated that It was in the context of those policies and initiatives that the workshop was organised to explore all issues surrounding effective, efficient and just land administration in the state.
Also speaking, the state commissioner of lands and survey Muhammed Jahun Biri said the workshop would provide an avenue for traditional, religious and community leaders to interact with local government council chairmen and officials responsible for the implementation of land administration reforms in the state.
In his remarks, the Director-General of GOGIS Dr Kabir Usman said stakeholders and participants at the workshop would come up with recommendations on land administration in the state, develop strategies for effective implementation of land administration and sustainable development policies of the state government.
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