…says project to be Commissioned October

By Peter Duru, Makurdi

The Benue State Commissioner for Lands, Survey and Solid Minerals, Sir Bernard Unenge Thursday disclosed that over 3,000 Certificates of Occupancy, C of O, have been issued to land owners in the state in the last two years following the commencement of Benue Geographic Information Service, BENGIS, project in the state.

The Commissioner said the coming of BENGIS had simplified the processing of land titles, supported by Governor Samuel Ortom’s speedy signing of titles unlike what obtained in the past.

The Commissioner who made this known in Makurdi while briefing newsmen on the progress so far recorded on the BENGIS project, disclosed that work on the project would be completed by the August while the project would be commissioned in October, 2022.

According to the Commissioner “the main building which is the service centre is about 70 percent completed. Then digitization and capturing of data is also at about 60 percent. The digitizing of the old documents that we have in the Ministry have gone far. Dusting, digitizing and then keeping the soft files, that too has gone to an advanced stage.

“The capturing of data through flying and capturing of pictures have been completed and the data is being processed. As we speak about 10 Local Government Areas, LGAs, have been completed and are being put to use. The other 13 towns are being processed.

“So now if you apply for C of O in Otukpo and you give us the coordinates, you do not need to go to Otukpo, you sit in our office, input the data and we can locate it.”

The said, “by the first week of August work on the entire service centre would by completed and it would be ready for us to move in because all equipment, furniture and computers have been purchased and we are targeting October for the commissioning of the project.

“This is made possible because Governor Ortom does not delay in the released of funds for the speedy completion of this project which is also dear to his heart.

“Again the Governor signs C o Os the moment he is notified, just two weeks ago he was able to sign over 500 of them and altogether we have been able to sign over 3,000 C o Os since the beginning of the BENGIS project. I can also assure you that the process is seamless, fast and stress free.”

Sir Unenge who urged the general public to approach the Ministry for their land papers to avoid falling into the hands of racketeers also asked the general public to take advantage of “the 50 percent tax waver granted by Governor Samuel Ortom which is still in place to process and own their plot of land.”