Plateau State Commissioner for Lands, Survey and Town Planning, Yakubu Dati.
By M. Peter – Jos
Plateau State government has approved seven new layouts in Jos North, Bassa and Jos South local government areas.
Already, the state government has approved the commencement of sales of plots in the layouts to members of the public.
The state Commissioner for Lands, Survey and Town Planning, Yakubu Dati, who undertook a tour of the layouts said Governor Simon Lalong has approved seven new layouts in the city.
Five of the layouts are for residential while two are for industrial purposes and warned against land encroachment.
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He said the land ranges in prizes depending on the locations, and that there is also the possibility of staggering the payment for those meaning to pay in installment.
Dati assured the sale is transparent and that buyers are treated equally to avoid a situation where only the rich acquire the lands while the less privilege who are also interested did not get it.
According to the Commissioner, “The intension of government is to create modern/smart cities and this comes with planning. That is why we started the new layouts, and His Excellency, Governor Simon Lalong, has approved seven new layouts. Five of those layouts are for residential while two are for industrial. The whole idea is to have a planned city such that as the city grows it doesn’t become an urban slum. That is why the planning is necessary.”
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“We intended to initially fund the layouts, but due to cash constraints and also due to the fact that we need to raise our funding we went into partnership with some serious investors. The whole idea is to make land available to the people with certificate of occupancy. If anyone buys a land, that person is assured of certificate of occupancy.”
“Besides, the layouts are areas with assess roads, water, electricity, essential services, recreation places and other needs of modern estates. We are ensuring all that and we are happy that following the work of the committee, we are happy to flag off sales of lands in the layouts.”
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“We have some layouts in Rayfield, Miango Road, Zaria Road, among other places. We are also calling on investors to key into this new layout project which is meant to change the face of our city and our children will inherit a standard city.”
“We are warning people against encroaching on lands, and we are happy that anti-land grabbing bill has been introduced in the state house of assembly. When the bill is passed it will become criminal for people to encroach into lands that is not theirs, and we will have the enabling law to prosecute defaulters.”
