Enugu Assembly frowns at land grabbing, encroachment

The Enugu State House of Assembly has said it will remain committed to d tackling all land-related matters in the state.

The House made this known during a public hearing on a bill to ban activities of land grabbers and encroachers, organised by the Joint  Committees on Lands and Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority (ECTDA).

The House Committee chairman on Lands, Mr. Pius Ezugwu identified the issuance of multiple Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) as the greatest challenge in the State.

Ezugwu said the bill would deal with people disobeying and flaunting the Geographic Information Service law (GIS), which was recently assented to by Governor Peter Mbah.

According to him, the Gov. Mbah-led administration is determined to end all land-related manipulations and malpractices.

“The greatest challenge in the state is on the land matter.

“The bill is out to tackle those flaunting the GIS law, and it is for the good of Ndi Enugu. We want this bill to be driven by the public opinion”, Ezugwu noted.

Also speaking, the Joint Committee co-chairman, Mr. Chima Obieze described multiple issuance of C of O on a particular land as a serious embarrassment to the government.

Obieze stated that the development not only hinders but also scares people away from investing in the landed properties, adding that the GIS will digitalise land ownership in Enugu State.

According to him, with the GIS every land will have a known and registered owner.

“The government wants to stop all forms of touting in the land management system.

“It wants to stop forceful entry into land, including hiring area boys or security operatives to destroy an already developed property.

“It tends to protect land owners in the state through the GIS. Private owner estate will also be protected.

“There are lands in Enugu state where the owners of the land are crying because those who invaded their land are more powerful than them.

“The vision of moving the economy of the state from $4.4 to $30 can’t be achieved if those who invested in landed properties are not protected”, Obieze pointed out.

Earlier, while declaring the public hearing open,  the Speaker of the House, RT. Hon. Uche Ugwu, said public hearing geared towards gauging the opinion of the people on the proposed bill.

Ugwu asked the participants to make use of the opportunity by making contributions that would fine-tune the bill into a widely accepted one when passed and assented as a law.

“The essence of this to make sure that the public makes their input before the assembly passes bill.

“The assembly is here to make sure that we make good laws for the governance of the state.

“We make sure that every bill passes proper process so that at the end of the day, the law will be for the good of people”, the Speaker added.

In his submission, the former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in the state, Mr. Anthony Ani (SAN) noted that the bill was a laudable one.

Ani, however, observed that some issues raised in the bill were already covered by the Penal Code , Criminal laws, and other national laws, and called for the strengthening of organs enforcing the laws

Another participant, Mr. Daniel Okwu urged the lawmakers to prioritise implementation of the bill, when passed, by taking punitive action against offenders of law.

Okwu stressed that the implementation of laws is more important than enacting new laws and asked the government to always call government officials discouraging people from investing in the state.