The Katsina State Government has traced and reclaimed landed properties valued at over ₦10 billion, about 38 years after the state was carved out of the defunct Kaduna State.
The General Manager of the Katsina State Assets Management Agency, Dr Lawal Aminu-Bala, disclosed this while briefing journalists in Katsina on Thursday. He said the recovery followed a directive by Gov. Dikko Radda to trace and recover all public assets that had been encroached upon or converted to private use.
According to Aminu-Bala, the directive led to the inauguration of a committee chaired by the Chief of Staff to the Governor, Alhaji Abdulkadir Mamma-Nasir. He explained that the committee obtained a gazette detailing the sharing of assets and liabilities between Kaduna and Katsina states when Katsina was created in 1987.
“The document gave us the latitude to recover landed properties, especially 37 houses and plots within Kaduna and Zaria, that were initially allocated to Katsina,” he said.
Aminu-Bala noted that the asset-sharing document revealed several properties due to Katsina State that were being occupied by individuals, federal government agencies or converted to private use. He said the committee worked closely with the Kaduna State Ministry of Lands and Survey to successfully take over control of the properties.
He added that the committee also recovered about 15 hectares of land in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) belonging to the Katsina State Government. According to him, arrangements are underway to demarcate the land and ensure it is properly utilised for the benefit of the state.
The general manager further disclosed that the state government plans to recruit assets surveillance officers across Katsina to protect public properties from vandalism and identify underutilised assets. Coordinators will be appointed at the local government level to supervise the officers across the state’s 361 wards, while a state coordinator will be based at the agency’s headquarters to ensure effective monitoring and coordination.