741 land owners in Gombe gets provisional verification
No fewer than 741 land owners have been provisionally verified with billing and payments in the Government Development Plan 16A and B.
According to Prof. Namala Keftin, Special Adviser, Project Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation (PIME), previous administrations failed to implement decisions due to lack of political will.
He disclosed this on Thursday, at a media briefing on the progress of the ongoing verification and re-certification exercise of land titles within some designated Government Development Plans.
Keftin said with the creation of Gombe Special Capital Zone Development Project infrastructural deficit would be bridged for the benefit of residents.
He said, “This exercise started with GDP 16; A and B as first batch. As at today, by 1pm, a total of 741 land owners have been provisionally y with billing and payments being made in the revenue base of government through GOGIS. Out of this number 598 are in GDP 16, 91 in 16A and 52 in GDP 16B.
“The exercise has identified and listed 110 cases that need to be sorted out on sites. Every case will be treated on its own merit.
“Let me use this forum to educate the general public that we don’t deal with Local Government customary titles. Also, where there is litigation we avoid issuing clearance to claimants until cases have been adjudicated with evidences.”
The Special Adviser stressed that the zone located within Gombe metropolitan has records of land issues, which needed to be sorted out, noting that it remained unabated until the current administration’s intervention.
“These problems manifested before the inception of the present administration. However, the previous administrations lacked the political will to implement the recommendations of various committees that were set up to correct lapses, which led to the degeneration of land matters. Blockage of access roads continued unabated, land owners kept violating laid down building regulations distortions in the approved layout,” Keftin added.
