Borno shuts land vendors’ offices

Officials of the Borno Geographic Information Service (BOGIS) have shut down the offices of alleged illegal land vendors in Maiduguri.

The executive secretary, BOGIS, Adam Bababe, an engineer, who led the officials, said the clampdown was with a view to avoiding chaos in land ownership and building permits.

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He added that the four offices belonging to three vendors were closed and an investigation was being carried out to clamp down on other vendors who acquire and sell lands illegally.

He said, “It is disheartening that a series of meetings with these land vendors in our office and bilateral discussions on how they can go about their businesses in a legitimate and professional way fell on deaf ears.

“They conduct their activities without recourse to the law. They just find farmlands and sub-divide them as they wish and change the purposes for which those lands were allocated, without standard layouts. And people were duped through those activities.”

Bababe, however, said the matter would be referred to appropriate authorities for prosecution after investigation.