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 Sen. Yusuf Yusuf (APC-Taraba ) during plenary on Wednesday.
Moving the motion, Yusuf said that the land use act vested ownership rights on the Federal Government over its land in states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
He said that 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 majority have no evidence of payment of ground rate on their property.
The lawmaker said that 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 losing over N6 trillion.
Sen. Sam Egwu (PDP-Ebonyi), Sen. Yahaya Abdullahi (PDP-Kebbi)supported the motion.
President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan thereafter listed the committee members to include Sen. Adamu Aliero (PDP-Kebbi )Sen Sani Musa (APC-Niger) and Sen. Sam Egwu (PDP-Ebonyi).
Others were Sen. Smart Adeyemi (APC- Kogi), Sen. Opeyemi Bamidele (APC- Ekiti), Sen. Betty Apiafi (PDP-Rivers) Sen. Yusuf Yusuf.
The senate president gave the committee four weeks to report back to plenary.
BRANDPOWER however reports that the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) Permanent Secretary, Mr. Adesola Olusade, in June 2022 inaugurated a debt recovery committee with the mandate to recover debts for the FCTA, with a particular interest in ground rents and sundry fees in land administration.
The FCTA at the time warned that those still owing ground rent in Abuja, which amounts to N29 billion, risk prosecution, revocation, or outright forfeiture of property.
The FCTA Director, Information and Communication/Chairman, Media and Publicity Sub-Committee of the Coordinating Committee, disclosed that the administration was forced to adopt the measures due to the non-compliance of property owners.
“Government, therefore, wishes that the affected debtors will come forward and clear their outstanding to avoid prosecution, revocation and forfeiture of their property.
The Senate is however yet to explain how it came by the humungous figure of N6 trillion outstanding payments which is at variance with the FCTA N29 billion figure as of June 2022.
