Commissioner for lands, survey and town planning in Plateau state, Barrister Festus Fuanter has said the state government has concluded plans to prosecute all citizens who do not have land titles to their landed property.
“Statistics has show that 90 percent of the registered land are owned by non indigenous citizens in Plateau state, only 5 percent are property owned by indigenous tribes, the rest of the 5 percent are government owned property, in spite of the 50 percent reduction in land titles processing.”
Bar. Fuanter also stated that defaulters of land titles owed government over 2billion naira. “In spite of the reduction in the payment of land titles by the present administration and the processing, people are not willing to pay, as we speak, we have over 2.5 billion naira owed government by land titles defaulters, but we will go after every defaulter in the next two weeks.” The commissioner warned.
Bar. Fuanter said over 6,500 houses built within Jos and Bukuru metropolis are not registered with the ministry.
“There are over 6500 houses within Jos and Bukuru metropolis without land titles.”
The commissioner stated this Friday in Jos, at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) during a media forum with Journalists in Plateau state.
Speaking on grazing reserve, the commissioner revealed that the present government house Jos, was built on grazing route, created since year 1920.
The commisioner regretted that there are hundreds of houses currently build on water channels and property erected illegally without building plan, and without government approvals, he call for a stop.
He gave reason for the delay in demolition of the illegal houses in the state “if we will demolished this illegal houses with compensation to the owners, it will cause government about 25 billion naira, but if we will demolished the illegal houses without compensation, it will cause another fresh bloodshed.”
The commissioner told Journalists that government has plans to build a media village for practicing Journalists.
Journalists told government to relocate all burial grounds sighted within Jos metropolis to the ruler areas, as most of such places has become gory sights.
