Demolition: We’ll Not Compromise Bauchi Master Plan, Says Govt
BY KHALID IDRIS DOYA, Bauchi
Bauchi State Internal Security & Home Affairs Commissioner, Barrister Abubakar Abdulhamid Bununu has said that issues of security can neither be emphasized nor politicalized, expressing regret that the original architecture of the state has been compromised by past successive governments and citizens.
The bastardization of security issues across the state, according to the commissioner, has been on for over three decades until when Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed came to the stage in 2019 where he deemed it fit that the Bauchi metropolis master plan be referred to and go to its original format.
The commissioner in a statewide live media interactive session yesterday, noted that those obstructions or compromise have been causing slot of insecurity in the state, and equally obstructs roads users and compromising other highways, roads-pass and pavements with heinous crimes and offenses that are being perpetuated and committed in those illegal structures in Bauchi city.
Barrister Bununu gave examples of the offenses being committed or perpetuated in the illegal structures as drugs peddling and prostitution, with some custodians of the illegal structures fully knowing while some not.
He explained, “Those that may not be in the picture ordinarily leave their business premises around 9:00 – 10:00 pm, while others from some places or even from other states come and assume those locations to perpetuate offenses and crimes against the state”.
He frowned, “This cannot be condoned, it has been ongoing for a reasonable time, but His Excellency deems it fit that there should be a stop to the ugly trench. It is only if you provide security for the state that you will now envisage flourishing of business activities, and security should be embraced and encouraged by the people”.
The commissioner for Housing and Environment, Rt. Hon. Danlami Ahmed Kawule who chipped in to the programme, said that the action is to mitigate environmental maltreatment sweeping across the Bauchi metropolis where illegal structures are either built or erected along waterways causing flooding in the city during rainy seasons.
Rt. Hon. Kawule therefore enjoined the people especially residents of Bauchi cosmopolitan city to their maximum support to the present administration in the state towards remodeling the metropolis to be among the modern state capitals in the country by adhering strictly to the Bauchi Master Plan.
Also speaking, the commissioner of Industry and Investment, Hon. Mahmood Baba Ma’aji said that the relocation and formation of clusters of businesses in the new market villages within Bauchi metropolis is a strategic plan designed to open up greater commercial and Investment opportunities to the people.
According to him, the plan which is part of the Bauchi Project 2 is to make the metropolis more secure, attract investment and diversify the internally generated revenue of the state.
He explained that the plan will facilitate the decongestion of Bauchi metropolis and promote expansion to its periphery just like other modern cities globally, and urged the people to support the policies and programmes of Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed.
The live media programme was earlier introduced by the Secretary to the State Government, Barrister Ibrahim Kassim Mohammed who explained that the maiden edition would comprise four commissioners taking questions from the media and general public on recent developmental issues surrounding the Bauchi metropolis.
Kassim explained that the programme forms part of Governor Bala Mohammed’s Bauchi Project 2 implementation for urban renewal which would subsequently be carried to all the urban centres of the state which entails, among others, the removal of illegal commercial structures and relocating them to suitable places in cluster forms.