Senate sets up committee to recover N6trn unpaid ground rent

The Senate has set up an ad hoc committee to recover over N6 trillion unpaid ground rate from property owners in the country.

This followed the adoption of a motion by Sen. Yusuf Yusuf (APC-Taraba ) during plenary on Wednesday.
Moving the motion, Yusuf said that the land use act vested ownership rights on the Federal Government over its land in states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

He said that the rights included the power to control and regulate town planning and physical development in relation to such lands and by extension prescribing and collection of any tax, fees or rates.

The lawmaker lamented that since 1992, over two million houses across the 36 states of the federation, including the FCT had been built and allocated to beneficiaries by the federal government.