PLATEAU: 3 MONTHS TO REGULARIZE BUILDINGS ON ROADS. JMDB’S G.M. HON. HART BANKAT, REMINDS AND ADVISES OWNERS

By: Amb. Valentine Adese (JP),

The General Manager (G.M) of Jos Metropolitan Development Board (JMDB), Hon ARC. Hart Bankat has reiterated his advice to owners of buildings on roads in the city of Jos and Bukuru in Jos North and Jos South Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Plateau State respectively, to take advantage of the three months grace given by the State Government to regularize their buildings.

He made this call today, 17^th June 2024, while inspecting the ongoing exercise of vehicular and traffic control under the State’s policy of “Urban Renewal”. 

ARC HART BANKA GM JMDB

In an on-the-spot interview with Journalists at the Terminus Market, the GM said, “You should know for a fact that this is something that has not been done before hence, you would expect early resistance.

“But we have had a lot of stakeholders’ engagements, so we are calling on all those who have illegal structures still standing on the roads to please take them off. We understand the hard times that people are going through. But we don’t want to be the ones that would come and take them off the road.

“It better they do it and take the advantage of removing valuables from the buildings.

“All we want is the space so that people would benefit from it”.

The GM who took time to praise the Governor for his political will to bring back the lost image of Jos/Bukuru cities, also thanked other collaborators and the people for the feat the exercise has achieved so far. 

In part ARC. Hart said, “You know His Excellency, Governor Caleb Mutfwang, was very clear when he highlighted Urban Renewal as part of the major Policy Trust of this administration, and part of Urban Renewal is to resuscitate the whole city back to its initial state and how it was planned.

“As you have gone around now, you have seen that, we are trying to demarcate and correct the setbacks and then clear our drainages, and where they have collapsed we are going to construct new ones. Also, where the roads have failed, we will try to see how to convince the government to capture it in the next budget.

“We are hoping that in the shortest time, the whole of the city center would take the expected shape and regain its place of glory.

“There are no resistance over the exercise of late because, as you can see, we are here to stay as we are now here to implement. The three (3) months period of grace for building owners to regularize would expire on the 10^th of June.

“But now we are in the spirit of enforcement of building control, while we are still ongoing with the vehicular and traffic control. While we are doing that, we are also going to try as much as possible that where buildings are done in error, we have to take them away.

“As you noticed, when we got to the river, you could see the state of the building there, right? We shall definitely, advise them on what to do. But where it is not conducive, we would advise them to take it away.

“We just started building control. We have prosecuted a lot of people on vehicular and traffic control, and I can tell you that they paid the price.

“You can now see the level of sanity we have in the city now. This is because the exercise has made people conscious that the Law is here to stay, be enforced, and implemented.

“Most important is the political will of the government of the day to be able to deliver on its promise.

“Our call to the citizens remains the same. It is for them to cooperate and obey the Law.

“For the feat so achieved, we want to thank our collaborators, the government for giving us the grace to be able to achieve this feat and the people for the huge cooperation this far”.