TOYOTA AND ABUJAKADUNA HIGHWAY
The adversities brought upon the Nigerian state by criminal gangs in the South and Islamist terrorists in the North do not serve our country any good offering but smart entrepreneurs and business-branding people of multinationals are poised to reap hundreds of millions of dollars from our collective national foolishness. It was a relief, albeit an undesirable one, to read the advert for Toyota’s Nigerian-centric medium-sized bus transport that is a veritable “armoured tank.” Yes, that is the state we have got ourselves in. Imagine what should pass for a comfy coach on our highways now fitted with gun ports, assault-resistant body-plating, glass, and wheels plus a whole lot of offerings that will have our infantry corps green with envy. But that is how it should be now otherwise the vital Abuja-Kaduna road artery will be left to ruins. True, the Abuja-Kaduna highway is necessary as a “de-congest route” to help ease the hectic stress of week-day lives at the Federal Capital Territory because, if that road were safe to traverse at all times, Northern Nigerians of all shades will repair to Kaduna for weekends and holidays, Kaduna still being some sort of de-facto capital of Northern Nigeria. What the Toyota automobile company has done is to create a niche business that will define safe road transport in Nigeria; that “gun port” feature excites me greatly because the deterrence for road marauders who chose to rob, kidnap, rape, and decimate is sustained bursts of suppression fire from Gatling-like gun platforms mounted at spread-out locations within the bowel of the bus transport. The time has come to begin exterminating criminal elements from Nigerian roads and it does not matter if they are Fulani kinsfolk of our sitting president.
Delta State Government has explained why it might revoke the ownership of plots of land in Asaba and other urban areas that have remained undeveloped for over two years, if no development of the allotted lands commenced in three months.
The Commissioner for Information, Mr Charles Aniagwu, who gave the warning in Asaba, deplored the attitude of some persons who acquired land from the state government but had left such lands undeveloped for long periods, saying that the situation was impeding the transformation of the environment through urban renewal eͿorts of the state government.
While noting that the decision was not meant to witch-hunt anybody, Aniagwu said that some of the undeveloped lands had become the den of kidnappers and robbers aside defacing the state capital and other towns and cties in the state.
Aniagwu said that the state government had decided to invoke Section 5 of the Land Use Act to drive the process of reclaiming undeveloped plots of land.
According to him, nobody in government is looking for land to buy from those he tremed “land bankers’’ but rather the interest of the state government was to develop the state in all spheres.
The information commissioner said that it was counterproductive to leave an acquired land undeveloped after three to 10 years of acquisition, with a Certifucate-of-Occupancy from the state government.
Aniagwu stressed that the Okowa administration was determined to its Urban renewal programme aimed at ensuring employment creation, strengthening of security and advancement of socio-economic development.
“Individuals who had acquired lands from the state government with CertiÀcate of Occupancy (C of O) have turned themselves into land bankers.
“This means that instead of such individuals to develop the acquired lands, they leave them hence we still see bushes around our cities.
He warned that anybody with a C-of-O of two years and above on a parcel of land acquired from the state government, but without any sign of development, will have such land(s) taken over by the government for better development.