Government returns recovered lands to owners in Gombe

No fewer than 1,292 plots of land encroached by illegal owners in Gombe State Government lay-outs have been recovered and handed to the rightful owners.

Chairman of a Committee set up by the State Government to recover Government layouts encroached into by illegal occupants, Honorable Shehu Durbi, who is also the State Commissioner for Lands and Survey, while handing over the ownership of the plots said the committee was not intended to marginalize perceived opposition members.

He added that, “This Committee is not for demolition as people are saying. It is a Committee for the recovery of government layout, which we call Gombe Development Plan GDP (government layouts). Its only duty is to recover layouts and in recovering layouts, definitely there must be some elements of demolition for you to recover”, he said

Durbi said the government had discovered that some miscreants were taking advantage of the layouts by demarcating and selling them off to unsuspecting buyers under the guise of selling their ancestral farmlands.

He also explained that the most prone areas were GPDs 16, 16A and 16B, located close to Shongo village, where the villagers having sold out their farmlands, also sold parts of their houses and then started encroaching the layouts when there was nothing more to sell.

According to him, “the earlier the situation is arrested, the better for the people and the state in general”.

“So, the essence of this committee is to make sure that the plan is restored and to make sure that the original owners of government allotted plots of land got their rights”, he stated.