Zamfara Assembly moves to streamline land allocations in the state

Zamfara Assembly has directed the state’s Directorate of Lands and Survey and the Urban Regional Planning Board (ZUREPB), to submit all land approvals to it effective from May 2019.

This is contained in a statement issued in Gusau on Friday by the Director- General, Press Affairs and Public Relations of the House, Mr Mustafa Jafaru-Kaura.

“The House’s standing committee on Land Survey, Housing and Town Planning, ordered the two agencies to submit to the committee all the land approvals granted by them since the inception of the current administration

“The committee also directed ZUREPB to present all its land approvals in Gusau and also to submit its revenue performance from 2019 to date.

“The Committee Chairman, Shafi’u Dama-Wanke, gave the directives at the end of the committee’s meeting on Friday.

“According to him, the measure aims to ascertain the true situation of issues regarding the distortion of Gusau master plan and evaluation of illegal structures in Government Reserved Areas.

“This followed series of meetings with relevant stakeholders regarding the alleged indiscriminate land and shops allocations in Gusau by the two agencies,’’ Jafaru-Kaura stated.

He quoted the committee chairman as saying that: “the committee was mandated by the House to investigate all irregularities in indiscriminate allocation of lands.

“It is to also investigate erection of illegal structures in the state capital and at the headquarters of the 14 local government areas of the state.

“We have no alternative than to take this step aimed at getting to the root of the matter.’’

“The lawmaker expressed dismay at the non-chalant attitude of some government officials in the indiscriminate allocation of lands and business premises to the highest bidder.

“According to him, all hands must be on deck to track offenders and also remedy the situation.

“The affected organisations must submit all the needed requirements to the committee on or before Wednesday,’’ Jafaru-Kaura also stated.

The committee chairman noted that it would embark on oversight visits to ministries, departments and agencies on Thursday as part of its on-going investigation over the matter, the spokesman added.