The Borno State Geographic Information Service (BOGIS), has commenced the clampdown on illegal land speculators and vendors in Maiduguri metropolis. The vendors and speculators are allegedly engaging in land racketeering in Maiduguri Metropolitan Council (MMC) and Jere Local Government Areas in the state. While launching operations against illegal land vending Thursday in Maiduguri, the state capital; BOGIS’s Executive Secretary, Adam Bababe disclosed that land vendors and speculators connived to engage in land racketeering in their offices.
According to him, four of such offices were identified for sealing off by the Agency to prevent further duping of members of the public. “We invited them for discussions on how they can go about their legitimate businesses, but it however; fell on deaf ears,” he lamented, stating that the land vendors and speculators are conducting activities on land against the law. He noted that the ongoing illegal activities on land and speculations have violated the bill establishing the Agency.
On the illegal activities of vendors, he said: “When they find a farmland on the outskirts of Maiduguri; they divided it without following the procedures for standard layouts of land. According to him, this led many people to be duped for such illegal land activities in Maiduguri. He said that some teachers were allegedly duped by the land vendors, after purchasing plots of land for the establishment of the State’s Mechanic Village along Damboa road. He lamented that the actions of vendors and land speculators, have negatively affected the process of payment of compensation to land owners, whose land were used for the mechanic village project.
“The nefarious illegal activities of land vendors should be stopped,” he declared, stating that the Agency does not know whether to pay compensations to farmers or the teachers; who bought the land without approved documents. He decried that the vendors have mutilated the identified plots of land into various unknown numbers. Meanwhile, he added that the State Government has suspended all the activities of the vendors and speculators. He said the officials of the sealed off offices will also be handed over to relevant agencies for necessary action against them.
