10 months in office: Pastor Umo Eno presents scorecard in Ministry of Lands/Water Resources
The Commissioner of Lands and Water Resources, Akwa Ibom State, Pastor Umo Eno has presented his ministry’s scorecard for the past 10 months in office.
Briefing the press during the monthly congress of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Akwa Ibom State Council on Friday, 15th October 2021, the commissioner commended the State Governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel for appointing him to serve in public office as commissioner and a member of the State executive council since January 4, 2021.
Umo Eno stated that as the Director of Agric Investment in Akwa Ibom State where he served before his appointment as Commissioner, he has facilitated the establishment of Ibom Fadama Microfinance Bank which will soon commence operations soon.
He further stated that he has also work hard to revamp the Akwa Palm Plantation which according to him will start operating soon adding that the state government is committed to establishing three warehouses in the 3 senatorial districts in the state that will be used to store farm produce.
The Land and Water helmsman also spoke on the achievement of his ministry, …
“We have done a few things in my ministry since I came on board on January 4, 2021. We have executed the Geographic Information System (GIS), we have improved revenue in our ministry.
“We set up Land Acquisition Recovery Committee to recover land where people just buy land and they don’t do anything with it, they just come in, deceive the state government ‘give us land’, they give them land.
“There are industrial parks that are supposed to have been created, so people just come in take the land and they are not doing anything with it. So His Excellency approved that we should review those land and if people don’t do anything we should revoke them. We set up that committee and we have done a lot of recoveries,” he noted.
On compensation payment to land owners acquired by government, the Commissioner stated that payment has since commenced to some communities and individuals whose lands were taken for government projects and added that government is committed to ensuring that every land owner is duly compensated.
He attributed the delay in payment of compensation to lack of records of the beneficiaries.
“Most of these things some officials have hand in them, sometimes they will throw away records and lie to the community, work with stakeholders in the community that records were missing. ”
They wouldn’t come back and say government didn’t pay compensation. But you know all of a sudden they would find out that I have the documents to show that government had paid compensation and nobody knows how I get the documents.
“There are people who will believe in you and continue to believe in you. We have done Land Review Committee, the committee has submitted its report and there are a lot of lands we are going to revoke,” Umo Eno added.
On the issue of land acquisision for commercial and industrial purposes the commission stressed that the governor has approved the decentralisation of issuance of certificate of Occupancy (CofO) which according to him was one of the key factors that prevented investors from investing in the state.
“Apart from that, one of the greatest things that have happened to the state is the issue of decentralisation of Certificate of Occupancy (CoO) which has been a key factor in the lockdown of businesses.
“The constitution empowers him to delegate authority to release the C of O, so he gladly delegated that authority to the Commissioner for Lands which is the first time in the state.
“That delegation was done and we can now sign C of Os and we are signing to decentralise and make businesses get back on track,” he noted.
The commissioner also spoke on the water bill that will give legal backing to the activities of the ministry in water sector.
He said that the bill will answer key questions and also provide solution to numerous challenges confronting the sector.
“…what is the yardstick, how did you do your enumeration, how did you arrive at that, what is your baseline study? All of those are contained in the Water Bill, the procedure for ensuring that that man in my village has water and when he has water, assuming I’m given money, the application of such funds, accountability. You know all of these agencies, the USAID…,” he explained.