Committee vows to remove bottlenecks stalling Certificates of Occupancy in Abuja

By Stanley Onyekwere

The Interdepartmental Ministerial Technical Committee on the Harmonization of Operations of Accelerated Area Councils and Sectional Title Reissuance Scheme (AACSTRIS) has vowed to remove all bottlenecks that have stalled the processing of Certificates of Occupancy (C of Os) in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

According to a member of the committee, and Director, Abuja Geographic Information Systems (AGIS) Director, Mrs. Jamilah Tangaza, who made this assertion, the committee was ready to sanitize Area Council layouts of fake allocations.

In a recent statement made available by Head of Information, AGIS, Uzodinma Cosmas, the committee noted that Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) and Bwari have the highest fake area council layout allocations in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

Also, it identified Gwagwalada and Kuje as area councils that are also grappling with fake layout allocations, while Abaji and Kwali were given clean bills of health.

“Fake layouts defined by the committee as layouts without ministerial approval, overlapping designs and double allocations have been the bane of Area Council allocations over the years.

“It can be recalled that since it commenced the process of recertifying area council land titles, AACSTRIS has had a running battle with the prevalence of fake layouts in the Area Councils traceable to the abuse of layout mapping processes in the various Area Councils in the past.” The statement said.

It was gathered that the Committee, which was set up by the FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed, has been part of his comprehensive efforts to bring sanity into the land administration processes in the FCT.

It also has the mandate to harmonize the operations of AACSTRIS, Mass Housing and Federal Housing Authority (FHA).

Chaired by the Executive Secretary, FCDA, Engr. Adamu Ismaila, the Committee includes such other departments as the Urban and Regional Planning, AGIS, Land Administration, Survey and Mapping, Mass Housing, Development Control as well as the Zonal Land Managers of the six Area Councils.