In the state capital of Jos, the Plateau State Government has shutdown a few unauthorised buildings.
It was alleged that the building owners were constructing on public land as well as other locations without the necessary regulatory authority’s consent.
Taskforce officials led by the Commissioner for Housing and Urban Development, Joshua Ubandoma; the Commissioner for Information, Musa Ashoms; and the General Manager of the Jos Metropolitan Development Board, Hart Bankat, stormed a construction site at the old Legislative Quarters along Bauchi Ring Road in Jos on Monday, arresting seventeen people.
Ubandoma informed reporters that the exercise was an integral part of the agencies’ and ministries’ ongoing surveillance operations meant to bring descending order back to the state capital and other areas included in the Jos master plan.
Ubandoma said, “We have given notices that all those in possession of government properties should return them. We have also warned all those erecting illegal structures in the state to desist from such practices because we want to ensure that sanity is restored in the state.
“The standard practice is that whenever you want to start a building, an approval has to be given after you must have obtained your appropriate titles from the Ministry of Lands and Survey. Unfortunately, this is not being done by some people. Nobody is above the law. So, all these people who are bent on going against the law will face the full wrath of the law.”
The Commissioner for Information added, “As a government, we are here to maintain law and order. We are not here to witch-hunt anybody because we don’t even know the property owners, but the laws of the land must be followed. Every property owner in Plateau State must abide by the law.”
