Katsina Recovers ₦10bn Assets 38 Years After Creation
From Mu’awuya Bala Idris Katsina
The Katsina State Government has successfully traced and retrieved landed properties valued at over ₦10 billion, thirty-eight years after the state was carved out of the old Kaduna State.
The General Manager of the Katsina State Asset Management Agency, Dr. Lawal Aminu Bala, disclosed this to journalists in Katsina, stating that the recovered assets include 37 houses and parcels of land located in Abuja, Kaduna, and Zaria. He explained that the properties rightfully belonged to Katsina State following its creation but were either illegally occupied, encroached upon by some federal government agencies, or abandoned over the years.
Dr. Bala revealed that, in line with the agency’s mandate, the state government constituted a committee chaired by the Chief of Staff, Alhaji Abdulkadir Mamma Nasir, to trace all government assets. According to him, the committee succeeded in obtaining official documents detailing the asset and liability sharing formula between the former Kaduna State and Katsina State, which guided the recovery process.
He further explained that the committee, working closely with the Kaduna State Ministry of Lands and Survey, was able to reclaim several of the properties. He added that some federal government agencies occupying about 15 hectares of land in Abuja belonging to Katsina State have agreed to pay compensation for the encroachment.
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Dr. Bala reaffirmed the agency’s commitment to continue recovering all state properties unlawfully taken over by individuals or institutions. He also announced plans to strengthen asset protection through the recruitment of Asset Surveillance Officers across the 361 wards of the state to guard public properties against vandalism and to identify underutilized government assets.
He noted that coordinators will be appointed at the local government level to supervise the officers, while a State Coordinator will oversee the entire operation from the agency’s headquarters to ensure effective monitoring and coordination.
