Senate sets up committee to recover N6trn unpaid ground rent

The Senate has set up an ad hoc committee to recover over N6 trillion unpaid ground rent from property owners in the country.

This followed the adoption of a motion by Yusuf Yusuf (APC-Taraba ) during plenary on Wednesday.

Moving the motion, Mr Yusuf said the Land Use Act vested ownership rights on the federal government over its land in states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

He said the rights included the power to control and regulate town planning and physical development in relation to such lands and by extension prescribing and collection of any tax, fees or rates.

The lawmaker lamented that since 1992, over two million houses across the 36 states of the federation, including the FCT had been built and allocated to beneficiaries by the federal government.

He added that yet the majority have no evidence of payment of ground rent on their property.

The lawmaker said with the current revenue challenges facing the country, there was a need for the government to look into other means of generating income.

He said that investigation revealed that the failure of relevant authorities to recover these funds had led the country to lose over N6 trillion.

Sam Egwu (PDP-Ebonyi and Yahaya Abdullahi (PDP-Kebbi) supported the motion.

President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, thereafter listed the committee members to include Adamu Aliero (PDP-Kebbi ), Sani Musa (APC-Niger) and Sam Egwu (PDP-Ebonyi).

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Others were Smart Adeyemi (APC- Kogi), Opeyemi Bamidele (APC- Ekiti), Betty Apiafi (PDP-Rivers) and Yusuf Yusuf.

The senate president gave the committee four weeks to report back to plenary.

(NAN)