The Borno State Government has set up a 13-member committee to demarcate the boundaries and control rebuilding of structures along river banks in Maiduguri and environs.
The committee was inaugurated by the Executive Secretary of Borno Geographic Information Service (BOGIS), Engr Adam Bababe, in Maiduguri on Tuesday.
He noted that the committee was necessary as the victims of the last devastating flood that ravaged the capital city had begun rebuilding their washed away homes on the river bank.
“Unfortunately for us, just some few days after the water recedes, the victims started rebuilding right inside the river bank, and it was the executive governor that saw them.
“Within the scope of our mandate, we will ensure that nobody build on the waterways and anybody caught will face the relevant section of the law,” he said.
Bababe said that government would ensure that due diligence is followed in earmarking the buffer zone and those with genuine and valid documents would be compensated.
“However, I wouldn’t want to pre-empt the committee but, 99.9 percent of the lands occupied on the river bank are illegal, and they would be treated according to the land use act, and without contradiction,” he said.
He said a census was conducted jointly between his agency, ministries of land and survey, and environment in 2020, which discovered over 1,300 houses built on the river bank.
“We demarcated the 1,300 houses and demolished majority of them but they were reconstructed by the occupants, and the unfortunate flood incident struck,” he said
He said the committee which was given a time frame of two weeks to complete its work would work under terms of reference.
“It will review the current buffer zones along the river banks of river Yedzaram and Ngaddabul and update them according to reality on the ground.
“It will identify and mark all developments that fall on the identified zones and produce detailed plans of the rivers, its banks and buffer zones for Executive approval.
“It will also recommend any measure in protecting and planning along the rivers within Maiduguri Metropolis and its environs,” he added.
