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Borno government to demolish 1, 300 houses in Maiduguri, Jere council

By Njadvara Musa, Maiduguri
31 August 2020   |   2:56 am
The Borno State Government plans to pull down 1,300 houses on the waterways and banks of River Nggadabul in Maiduguri Metropolis and Jere council. Executive Secretary, Borno Geographic Information Service (BOGIS), Adam Bababe disclosed this in Maiduguri, while briefing journalists on the dangers and menaces of blocking waterways and flood plains with illegal structures. According…

Governor Zulum of Borno. Photo; TWITTER

The Borno State Government plans to pull down 1,300 houses on the waterways and banks of River Nggadabul in Maiduguri Metropolis and Jere council.

Executive Secretary, Borno Geographic Information Service (BOGIS), Adam Bababe disclosed this in Maiduguri, while briefing journalists on the dangers and menaces of blocking waterways and flood plains with illegal structures.

According to him, since the commencement of the rainy season in June this year, some parts of the metropolis on river banks are submerged by floods.

He said that the current flooding situation in the metropolis and Jere council calls for urgent attention to protect people’s lives and property.

Bababe, an engineer, stressed that, “all the marked houses and structures on waterways will give way by their demolition.”

He said the agency since its inauguration last March, generated N200 million from ground rents.

The Executive Secretary further disclosed that about N1 billion targeted revenue is being expected before the end of this year.

While implementing the proposed demolition exercise, he said: “We’ve to clear the air on the proposed demolition of some churches, which were given religious connotations in some quarters,” adding that mosques built on waterways are equally marked for demolition.

His words: “There is nothing like witch-hunting or religious sentiments associated with BOGIS’s demolition exercise,” he said. According to Bababe, the agency had fruitful discussions with the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).

He said that the religious leaders exhibited an understanding of the demolition of some churches built either on waterways or river banks.

He said “Our actions on demolition exercise, were to protect houses from being submerged by floods,” adding that the flood plains and river banks cover no less than 35 per cent.

Bababe, therefore, urged the people to stop building on river banks and flood plains, stressing that they are not suitable for the construction of houses.

People who acquired illegal structures and built on them, he said, should know that the consequence is demolition without compensation.

He said the state was able to save N200 million through ground rents and blockades of leakages from the former Ministry of Land and Survey, stressing that some unscrupulous staff allegedly connived with people to defraud the state government.

“The digitalization of the land records and introduction of electronic payments for ground rents has curtailed the activities of land racketeering and corruption on land matters,” he added.

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