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Delta threatens to revoke undeveloped urban city lands

The Delta State Government has threatened to invoke relevant Sections of the Land Use Act to revoke all Certificates of Occupancy (C-of- O) of lands allocated for developmental purposes in urban centres across the state, which are lying fallow.

 

This was as the state government said any land already allocated to the people in urban cities that have not been put to use for the past two years would be revoked.

 

The state Commissioner for Information, Mr. Charles Aniagwu, who disclosed this in Asaba, the state capital, yesterday said owners of such lands were expected to commence development on the land within the next three months or should be ready to lose them.

 

He said: “Most plots of land allocated for over 10 years ago had turned into forest which serve as safe haven and hideouts for criminals, as well as contributed adversely in defacing the beauty of the cities.

 

“The state government will no longer condole, a situation where the owners of the lands will wait for many years without any sign of development such land with the intention to resell them for greater gains.

 

“As a state, we are giving them only three months’ notice, and anyone who was allocated a land with C of O issued by the state government for more than two years, and has not commenced the process of development, the government will take advantage of the provision of the Land Use Act to revoke the C of O and thus make that land available to other persons who are ready to develop it. “We will not look at faces in enforcing this policy. They have refused to develop the land thereby distorting our master plan. We want a transformed environment, but we cannot continue to have bushes of undeveloped plots in the middle of our cities.”

 

The people, according to him, applied for land from the government and it graciously gave them, but rather than develop such plots, they have continued to nurse and breast feed the land, waiting for when the price will appreciate for them to resell such land.

 

The Commissioner added: “We are interested in fast tracking our urban renewal drive. Some of the lands were allocated over 10 years ago, and the only thing they do is to fence it and begin to nurture it for more dividends, that is not the reason it was allocated.

 

“We are convinced that with what we have put in the road development network, investors are interested in taking advantage of available land to develop and bring about employment and thus curb crime in the state.”

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