The Kogi State Bureau of Land and Urban Development Wednesday warned communities within the state’s sixteen kilometers radius to desist from selling or allocating land without government approval.
The director general of the bureau, Alhaji Samari Teina Abdulmalik, gave the warning during a stakeholder’s meeting on land administration held in Government House, Lokoja.
He said the meeting was not convened to take away land belonging to communities, adding that issue of allocation of land within the stipulated 16 kilometers radius in the state’s capital is the prerogative and right reserved for the bureau.
Abdulmalik warned that sanctions await whoever go against the Land Use Act of the federal government and the Kogi state law which is called 16 kilometers radius, assuring that government would not relent in its effort to pay compensation for any land acquired from communities by government.
“We are not here to take anybody’s land , but I am assuring you that any land that government take from any community will be adequately compensated for. So, we want the communities and other stakeholders to stop arbitrary allocation of land without government approval.
“Whoever needs land should come to the bureau so that we can have proper plan and good layout that will pave room for development, because it is in our plan to effect massive development in Lokoja, the state capital.”
In his remarks, the Olu of Oworo, Alhaji Mohammed Adoga, described the stakeholder’s meeting on land administration as timely and urged the bureau to intervene in land dispute that has become a major threat to development in many communities.
Also in his remarks, Oba Fedrick Durojaiye, the Olu of Akpata-Oworo, described land as a precious gift of nature to communities, adding that “it is imperative to the land owners to guard it jealously.”
The royal father appealed to the state government to take development to the rural areas by opening access roads.