The Akwa Ibom State government has raised the alarm that fraudulent land speculators were on the prowl around government designated areas, disguising as land owners to dupe unsuspecting members of the public.
Commissioner for Lands in the state, Capt. Iniobong Ekong (Retd) in a chat with Journalists in Uyo, explained that the scammers perpetrate their illegal businesses around the government earmarked housing development sites in Uyo, Ibesikpo Asutan and other locations across the state.
Ekong therefore warned the public to beware of the activities of the scammers.
LEADERSHIP gathered the issue became so appalling when the speculators started accusing government of stealing and converting their purported land without compensation.
The Commissioner, who described the allegation of land grabbing levelled against Governor Umo Eno as laughable, expressed dismay that the perpetrators he described as the real thieves have gone “to the extent that the owner of the property is now labeled as a thief.”
He said it has become necessary to set the record straight which informed the parley with journalists to educate the people on the issue of land, landed property and procedures, especially as it affects Uyo Capital City.
The Commissioner recalled that a former governor of the state, Obong Victor Attah created the Uyo Capital City Development Area (UCCDA), after a very painstaking job by redesigning what was hitherto a local government area into the state capital.
“Prior to that he took time to acquire lots of places, some he designated as commercial areas, some he designated industrial areas, some were housing estates scattered in a manner that gave sanity to an emerging town in consonant with internationally accepted best practices of a well-layed out planned metropolitan area,” Ekong said.
He added that allocations to the acquired areas were made from 2001 to 2010 and people issued official letters as owners of these areas as either commercial, residential, industrial and even mixed lands.
“Now what happened by evolution of time and of course with lack of infrastructures in these areas, it becomes very difficult for anybody to move in, especially with their families accompanying with insecurity around us and the need for a clean livelihood; people have not really been able to go in to establish residences or commercial properties as the case may be,” the Commissioner explained.
Ekong said this gave rise to “charlatans who jumped up to have groups and gangs calling themselves all kinds of names just to be able to acquire these lands not knowing that we are fully in possession of these lands by documents, by status and in practice and so they began to act as owners of the land that had been acquired by the government.”
He accused the land scammers picking parts of a particular designed plot with another and have a house in-between two plots to distort a well-designed capital city into a slum.
On assumption into office, Ekong said he embarked on a quiet and systematic steps to right these wrongs, saying he has the legality, the political will and capacity to return the state to what it was designed to be.
“That is why you are having this outcry and I owe no apology to anyone as long as we have the legality to implement, and we have the mandate to manage land and land administration for, and on behalf of the people of Akwa Ibom State,” the Commissioner stated.
He vowed to right these wrongs and correct what the city was supposed to look like.
“The truth is that if anyone is interested in purchase of land anywhere in this state, all you need to do is to secure the services of a lawyer, who is armed with the information you need,” Capt. Ekong stated.
