Katsina recovers ₦10bn landed assets from Kaduna, FCT after 38 years

The Katsina State Government has announced the recovery of landed properties valued at over ₦10 billion from Kaduna State and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), nearly 38 years after Katsina was created from the defunct Kaduna State

The General Manager of the Katsina State Assets Management Agency, Dr. Lawal Aminu-Bala, disclosed this on Thursday while briefing journalists in Katsina. He said the recovery exercise followed a directive by Governor Dikko Radda to trace and reclaim all public assets that had been encroached upon or converted to private use.

According to Aminu-Bala, the directive led to the inauguration of a committee chaired by the Chief of Staff to the Governor, Alhaji Abdulkadir Mamma-Nasir. The committee relied on official gazettes and documents detailing the sharing of assets and liabilities between Kaduna and Katsina states at the time of Katsina’s creation in 1987.

“The document gave us the legal backing to recover landed properties, particularly 37 houses and plots in Kaduna and Zaria, which were originally allocated to Katsina State,” he said.

He explained that the records revealed several Katsina-owned properties that had been occupied by individuals, taken over by federal government agencies, or converted to private use over the years.

Aminu-Bala noted that the committee worked in collaboration with the Kaduna State Ministry of Lands and Survey, which facilitated the successful takeover of the identified properties.

He added that the state government also recovered about 15 hectares of land in the FCT belonging to Katsina State, stressing that steps were being taken to properly demarcate and secure the land for public use.

According to him, the government plans to deploy asset surveillance officers across the state to protect recovered properties from vandalism and to identify underutilised public assets. Coordinators will be appointed at the local government level to supervise activities across the state’s 361 wards, while a state coordinator will be based at the agency’s headquarters to ensure effective monitoring and coordination.

Aminu-Bala said the measures are aimed at safeguarding government assets and ensuring they are utilised for the overall development of Katsina State.