From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa

As part of efforts to reinvigorate the urban renewal policy of the administration of Governor Douye Diri, the state government on Monday flagged off the property and lands enumeration exercise in Yenagoa metropolis and its environs.

According to the Bayelsa Geographic Information System (BGIS), which is in charge of the exercise, it is for the purpose of proper planning and economic growth in the state.

The state government through the agency, however, denied that the exercise is designed for tax collection, insisting that the exercise is to further promote the urban renewal project of the present administration in the state and it will last between two to three months.

The deputy governor of Bayelsa State, Lawrence Ewhrujakpo, while speaking during the flag-off exercise at the BGIS office headquarters in Yenagoa, said the property enumeration exercise is long overdue in the state to assist in accurate planning and growth.

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Ewhrujakpo, who was represented by the State Commissioner for Lands and Housing, Mr Esau Andrew, noted that the exercise will be the first attempt by the state to get the accurate data of properties in the state capital.

‘This is long overdue in Bayelsa. We can all attest to the fact that planning is crucial to development. Without planning you cannot develop adequately. Since the creation of Bayelsa State, this event should have taken place. You have to plan where you can site a hospital, where you can site markets and you can know where it is densely populated and where it is sparsely populated. You don’t have those data in Bayelsa. Today I congratulate The Managing Director of BGIS, Igo Assembly Goin, and officials of BGIS for taking the bold step to do what is needful for Bayelsa State. For Bayelsa to achieve greatness, it must get the accurate data needed for growth,’ he stated.

Igo Assembly Goin in remarks explained that the land and property remuneration exercise is the answer to the years of yearning for accurate data for planning, socio-economic activities and development.

‘It is to correct the shortfalls noticed in the needed accurate data of the state. The property and land enumeration exercise is meant to create a database for lands and properties and break old records and create new ones. The exercise is basically a property and land assessment project which seeks to provide accurate and up-to-date information on lands and properties in the urban towns across the state for planning and development. It is to further facilitate the urban renewal programme of the prosperity administration,’ he said.