Owerri — To meet public expectations on Land Use Administration and Management in the state, in line with the New Face of Imo philosophy, Imo State government has procured a fully computerised facility under the Imo Geographical Information Service (IGIS), to re-certify land titles.

Disclosing this to newsmen, Commissioner for Lands, Survey and Urban Planning, Hon. Levi Oguike, said the IGIS would offer electronic processing and storage of all state land records into a digital database and electronic lands and deeds registry, with a non refundable processing fee of N20,000.

Oguike said in the case of Ekwema Layout, applicants for Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) would be required to pay N2.5 million capital contribution for infrastructural development and another N92,000 for statutory fees, while N750 would be paid per square metre. He said the capital contribution would be applicable only to undeveloped layouts in Owerri, Okigwe, Orlu, Oguta among others.

"Government has, therefore, come to the unavoidable decision to issue new title documents with appropriate security features, which in some cases, would include biometrics, to all government property title holders such as Certificates of Occupancy, Deeds of Assignments and all other legal land titles registered in the lands and deeds registry of the state, beginning from January 4, 2010," he said.

Oguike reminded those who cornered government lands to be ready to pay, adding that "if you hold 10 land titles, you are going to pay for each of them in respect to capital development. If you don't have money to pay for them, then you can off-load some of them and pay for the ones you can afford."