The Sokoto State government says it has provided land and paid compensation to land owners whose lands were acquired for various development projects in the state.
The Commissioner for Lands, Housing, Survey and Town Planning, Barrister Nasiru Aliyu Dan Tsoho said this in an interview with journalist on Sunday.
He said the lands were for Federal Government projects sited in the state like the Federal College of Education, that couldn’t take off because of land and compensation issues.
He said the Governor Aliyu administration recently paid N104 million to the affected land owners for the project to proceed.
He also said the earlier acquired land for irrigation farming by the immediate past administration of which compensation was not paid to land owners had been paid by the governor.
According to him, the governor paid N216 million to the owners. On the issue of contract variation due to inflation, he said the governor was resolving the issues.
“I will give you the example of the Tasha Illela down to Achida road and that of Gusua road, down to Shuni town.
“The road was awarded three years back and abandoned because the immediate past administration didn’t fund the project.
“So the contractor abandoned the project, we have no option but to review the cost of the project considering inflation.
“The project is critical and if we don’t complete the project it would be a great waste of the resources of the people.”
He alleged that the immediate past administration sold government houses, and embarked on an indiscriminate excision of plots and multiple sales of the houses.
“These are some of the problems that we are dealing with. I will give you an example of how bad the situation is.
” here is this man that was involved in an accident and lost his memory and it is his wife that is responsible for keeping the family going.
“The sad part of the story is that they bought a house that has been sold to several other people. Due to his pathetic case the real owner relinquished his ownership to him.
“Another scandalous case is the allocation of the houses in Gidan Salanke Housing Estate, which he met at 70 per to 80 per cent completion, but didn’t complete but he went ahead to allocate three months before he left the office.
“So we are sorting out the mess and once we are done, we intend to refund those who cannot be accommodated.”
He ,however said there was a judicial commission of inquiry into the dealings of the past administration right from day one, adding that the activities of past government constitutes a challenge in the governance of the state.
“We are still dealing with the issue of double allocation and other problems. We are waiting for the report of the judicial commission of inquiry.”
