Borno State government has set up a committee on boundary demarcation and development along the Maiduguri riverbanks.

Inaugurating the committee members chaired by Liman Mustapha, in Maiduguri, Governor Babagana Zulum, represented by the Executive Secretary of the Borno State Geographic Information Service (BOGIS), Adam Bababe, urged the committee to review the current buffer zones along the banks of the Yedzaram and Ngadda rivers.

He urged the committee to identify and mark all developed properties that fall on the identified zones and provide detailed plans of the rivers and their banks and buffer zones, as well as recommend any measure in protecting and planning along the riverbanks of Maiduguri metropolis and its environs.

Bababe explained that the committee’s inauguration followed the September 10, 2024 floods that destroyed lives and property, including critical infrastructure in the metropolis.

He stressed that the residents living along the riverbanks were warned since 2020 to desist from building houses and other structures, but lamented that after the recent floods in Maiduguri, some people still go ahead to build their houses and other structures along the flooded riverbanks.

The Executive Secretary, who charged the committee not to allow the building of houses and other structures along the buffer zones, warned that illegal buildings that were marked by the agency are to be demolished with no compensation from the state government.

He said most of the residents living in the buffer zones don’t have land titles, as over 1, 300 houses were marked in 2021 for demolition by BOGIS.

Mustapha pledged to work professionally and under the five-point terms of reference on demarcations of boundaries. He urged public members to cooperate with the committee members on the demarcations of boundaries and land development plans.