Lands in Anambra go digital, as Enemali introduces GIS

By John Ndu

From records, Anambra State is the first state in the South East that has introduced Geographic Information System (GIS). With this development, you don’t need to go to the Ministry to ascertain available lands. You can equally monitor your legally purchased land at the comfort of your home.

In line with that, the Ministry of Land, under the present Commissioner, Hon Bonaventure Enemali has finalized plans to train over 80 staff on land information and other related programmes on Information Communication Technology (ICT).

The GIS is an ICT programme adopted by the Anambra state Government to harmonise the process of land allocation in the state.

Hon Enemali earlier disclosed this in Awka, Anambra state.

Mr Enemali noted that the State’s Governor, Willie Obiano had directed that all Lands in the State would be electronically access to promote transparency and discourage fraudulent activities related to lands.

According to him, the Electronics Data Management System (EDMS), will capture every land data online, as it will end paper documentation, to further avoid the tale of loss of files.

” The digital documentation of Lands will put to an end double allocation, illegal taxation, but provide relevant information on lands in the state.

“With that, land applicants will pay at the right channel, into the government account and present to us the evidence of payment for proper processing.

“When this programme comnences, you do not need to come to the Ministry of Lands for any reason. You will get every information at the comfort of your home.

“If you must come, the customer service will attend to know you, and with this, you will not have interface with the land processing staff.

“This will end unnecessary extortion, and promote prompt response to land applications.

“These and more are the basic reforms in the land allocation. With this process also, every land in the State will be captured, to enable applicants search for Information about any land in the State.” Enemali explained.

Speaking on acquisition of Certificate of Ownership (C of O), the Land Commissioner pointed the state government had subsidized the process fee of and as well waived some stringent requirements imposed by the previous administrations.

“Now the private lands, the Attorney General will sign within two weeks while government lands, the Governor will sign within one month.

“We urge individuals and investors to harness this wonderful opportunity to buy land in the state for industrial purposes.

“It is in line with the”Aku-luo-uno” policy of Gov Willie Obiano. We need more industries and the State will provide the Land and every other necessary assistance.” Enemali added.

To this end, whoever that is making false and misleading claims about his lands does that at his own detriment.

The recent release by one Mr Ugochukwu Adilieje, claiming that the present Commissioner, Hon Bonaventure Enemali revoked his Land was a fallacious claim.

The said land was revoked under the administration of His Excellency, Mr Peter Obi in 2008.

Meanwhile, Mr Adilieje purchased the land since 1982, but failed to develop it in line with the stipulated provisions of land Use Act before the revocation.

It was also gathered that Mr Adilieje had already sold the land to a developer (name withdrawn) to the tune of N170 million and to be paid in installments.

When the developer went further to ascertain the true position of the land, he gathered that the said land had been revoked since 2008.

Let’s remember that every land belongs to government and can be revoked after allocation for not observing the terms of the allocation.