Gombe holds stakeholder workshop on digital land administration

The Gombe State Geographic Information Systems, GOGIS, has held a two-day stakeholder engagement workshop on land modern administration in the state.

The two-day workshop brought together traditional, religious and community leaders to freely interact with local government council chairmen and officials responsible for the implementation of the land administration reforms.

Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya said the workshop was aimed at exploring all issues surrounding effective, efficient and just land administration.

The Director-General of GOGIS, Dr. Kabiru Usman Hassan, said the workshop was born out of concern by the organisation that despite the strategic land reforms being introduced, there was a lack of public awareness on the potency and impact of the reforms on the state.

He said GOGIS, therefore, solicited inputs from the relevant stakeholders so that the reforms would be holistically implemented.

Governor Yahaya said the vision of GOGIS was conceived to explore all issues surrounding effective, efficient and just land administration in Gombe State and to tackle challenges associated with a manual approach to land administration and management.

He also said GOGIS was designed to check uncontrolled alienation of communal lands, ensure the provision of basic physical and organisational infrastructure and expand the radius of all existing urban areas while creating new ones in all the local government areas of the state.

Ariel survey

The Gombe State Governor said his administration had awarded the contract for the aerial survey of the entire state, using orthophoto technology, to accelerate the issuance of Digital Certificates of Occupancy.

“It is established the world over that a just and efficient land administration system is necessary in order to guarantee ownership and security of tenure, provide security for credit, support land and property taxation, monitor land transactions as well as reduce incessant disputes associated with the land. A good land administration system is also essential in order to improve urban planning, support infrastructural development and proper environmental management,” said Governor Yahaya.

According to him, the government has provided GOGIS with state-of-the-art office accommodation and operational incentives, including modern ICT infrastructure, to ensure proper implementation of the first phase of its establishment.

Layout auditing

To align with modern realities in metropolitan development, Governor Yahaya said his administration initiated the Gombe Capital Special Development Zone project, to provide befitting structures, access roads and other facilities while also ensuring strict compliance with development control regulations in and around the state capital.

He said consequent to that, there was the temporary suspension of land transactions, buildings and building plan approval at the area designated as Gombe Capital Special Development Zone, pending the completion of layout auditing exercises and proper verification and re-certification of all land titles in the affected layouts.

Governor Yahaya said, however, that as soon as the layout auditing was completed, the suspension would be lifted to allow individuals to proceed with the development of their plots in line with the requirements of the law.

He said he had set up special project implementation, monitoring and evaluation team, in conjunction with all relevant ministries, departments and agencies, to ensure proper implementation in the designated areas.

The Gombe State Governor also announced that GOGIS had recently conducted a thorough audit of some of the affected layouts.

“Preliminary findings revealed several distortions and illegal activities, such as blockage of 13 major access roads in GDP 16, 4 major roads in GDP 4 and another 4 major roads in GDP 4A, sub-division of the federal secretariat plot into personal and individual plots, deliberate change of purpose through the 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 amongst others,” said Governor Yahaya.

According to the Director-General of GOGIS, Dr. Kabiru Usman Hassan, the Gombe Capital Special Development Zone, was established with a specific mandate to develop the state by constructing befitting structures, provide access to basic amenities and social infrastructure to draw investors into the state and subsequently make the state industrious and boost Internally Generated Revenue of the state.

Following this development, the Director-General said Gombe Geographic Systems had carried out audits of layouts across 12 designated areas and identified distortions, as well restored them to their original status for proper planning.

 

 

 

 

Emmanuel Ukoh