Preparatory to the planned land revocation in the serviced areas of the Phases I, II & III of the Federal Capital City, Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Administration has taken inventory of the affected plots of land.
The FCT Director of Land Administration, Adamu Jibrin Hussaini made this disclosure recently in his office, while receiving Master Students in Sustainable Urban Development from the Centre for Human Settlements and Urban Development of the Federal University of Technology, Minna that were in Abuja for a study tour.
Hussaini in company of the Director of the Abuja Geographic Information Systems, Dr. Isa Ibrahim Jalo, received the group led by the Director of the Centre, Professor Mohammed Bashir Nuhu.
The Director recalled that advertisement were placed in three National Dailies in line with the Federal Capital Territory Executive Committee (FCT EXCO) approval that the Department of Land Administration commence the process of revocation of titles in respect of undeveloped plot (s) of land in serviced districts of the Phases I, II & III of the Federal Capital City, Abuja.
According to him, the Department of Land Administration has carried out the public announcement on the 31st July 2019 warning allottees of plot (s) of land within the Phases I, II & III of the Federal Capital City, Abuja (FCC) that have been serviced with infrastructure to develop them or have them revoked within three months of the publication, which is from Wednesday, July 31, 2019 and to expire on Thursday, October 31, 2019.
He emphasized that by that publication, the affected allottees have been reminded that failure to carry out improvement or development of such plot (s) contravenes the terms of Rights of Occupancy accepted by such allottees as well as the provision of Section 28(5) (a & b) of the Land Use Act N0. 6 of 1978, Cap. L5, Laws of the Federation of the Nigeria 2004.
Hussaini revealed that the Authority has taken inventory of such undeveloped plots but waiting for the expiration of the grace period to finalize the list.
His words: “The Department of Development Control has data of all developed plots in the Federal Capital City because no individual or corporate organization can develop without its requisite approval.”
Also speaking at the occasion, the Director of the Abuja Geographic Information Systems (AGIS), Dr. Isa Ibrahim Jalo said that Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is the only tool that can drive and sustain any modern city across the globe.
Dr. Jalo disclosed that AGIS management is currently working to expand the scope and use of GIS in the Territory and sought for collaboration in data gathering with the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Centre for Human Settlements and Urban Development which can be part of their academic pursuit.
Earlier, the Director of the Federal University of Technology, Minna Centre for Human Settlements and Urban Development, Professor Mohammed Bashir Nuhu remarked that the Centre was established in 2003 by the University in collaboration with UN-Habitat, Nairobi Kenya, to assist in Nigerian Development Planning in the Human Settlement, Development and Management, Urban Governance and Sustainable Urban Development.
He noted that the main function of the Centre is to undertake training programmes related to Sustainable Urban Development and Governance in order to assist States and Local Governments in their manpower development; programme development; project implementation; and monitoring and evaluation.