The Bauchi State Government has assured residents of the metropolis that the planned review of the city’s master plan is in their interest.
The Commissioner for Lands and Housing, Alhaji Aminu Hammayo, gave the assurance in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Bauchi.
He said the government would implement the review with minimal removal of unapproved structures built in various locations in the city.
He added that the exercise would accommodate some of the existing structures that did not go well with the master plan.
“We want to see as much as possible how limited the number of removals are.
“We want to do it in such a way that the review will accommodate some of these distortions so that if we need to remove anything, there is going to be a very few removals.
“Basically, the review of a master plan is a professional assignment.
“This review is to try to see how much of these distortions we can accommodate without compromising what the rules are and what the standards ought to be so that we are able to achieve what we have intended to achieve.
“So, I think I will not rule out the possibility of removals. There may be some, but we will try to see that we have as minimal of this as possible.’’
According to Hammayo, at the end of the review, the lives and property of the residents will be better protected.
He added that at the end of the review, adequate measures would be put in place to ensure that the public did not distort the master plan in future.
NAN reports that the planned review will be the first since 1976 when a British firm was contracted by the Bauchi government to carry out a review of the master plan.