Saraki signs Land Charge Bill into law
By Demola Akinyemi
ILORIN — Governor Bukola Sarakiof Kwara State, yesterday, signed into law the state Land Charge Bill (2009) in order to boost the revenue generation in the state and cushion the effect of the economic meltdown.
The governor explained that it was imperative now to explore the opportunities of generating more resources in the state to discourage the over dependent on monthly allocations from the Federal Government.
Assenting to the Bill, Gov. Saraki said the essence of the exercise was to increase the strength of land as an asset to the people, with the aim of making land resource more viable in the state.
According to him, Nigeria is a country that is known to be a mono product state that depends only on oil revenue, stressing that with the global economic meltdown there is need for the state to device new ways of getting revenue to meet its growing obligations to the residents.
In the new order, he explained that the re-appraisal of the land revenue would be a source of revenue for the state and even the users.
He recalled that his administration met a lot of infrastructure decay on assumption of office, adding that government since then had been trying its best to improve the infrastructure.
Saraki noted that based on the decay of infrastructure, government decided to ensure that the land resource is made to add to the internally generated revenue for the state.
He solicited the support of the people of the state in effective implementation of resources and assured that all the funds realised through the Land Charge would be used for the good of the people of the state .
In his remark, Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Alhaji Abdullazeez Babatunde Mohammed, said the state Land Charge Bill was an executive bill which passed through three readings and that a public hearing was also conducted before it was put in place, adding that it was brought to the House will the aim of ensuring prudent use of land resource in the state.
