Senate Rises To Recover N6trn Unpaid Ground Rent

The Senate has marshaled out plans to recover N6 trillion unpaid ground rate from property owners across the 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory,

To this end, the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan set up a 7-man committee comprising members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to achieve the target and were given four weeks to report back to plenary.

They are Sen. Adamu Aliero (PDP-Kebbi ) Sen Sani Musa (APC-Niger) and Sen. Sam Egwu (PDP-Ebonyi).

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

The move 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 the states and FCT.

He noted 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 regretted that since 1992, over two million houses across the country were built and allocated to beneficiaries by the Federal Government.

He said that majority of the house owners have no evidence of payment of ground rate on their property.

Yusuf informed that with the current revenue challenges facing the country, there is a need for the government to seek additional means of generating income.

He said that investigation showed that the failure of relevant authorities to recover the ground rent plunged the country into N6 trillion revenue loss.

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

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