The Katsina State Government has appealed to the Federal Government to look at the possibility of revisiting over 74 abandoned projects spread across the state.

The state Commissioner for Lands and Physical Planning, Dr Faisal Kaita, made the call at a stakeholders’ town hall meeting in Katsina on Tuesday.

The meeting was organised through the Pffice of the Personal Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Constituency Affairs, Alhaja Khadijat Omotayo-Kareem.
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Kaita said that some of the projects were started by the previous administrations, but abandoned either from the start or at various levels of completion.

“Out of the projects, the dualisation of Katsina-Kano road, expansion of the Umaru Musa-Yar’adua airport, and Katsina-Daura-Maradi rail projects are most important.

“On Katsina-Kano road, the project starting from Kano to Gidan Mutum-Daya has been completed, but the Katsina part has been abandoned.

“We understand that the Katsina part was left due to non-payment of compensation to residents of the areas the road project will affect,” Kaita disclosed.
According to him, the payment of compensation for Kano part was done by the Federal Government, “therefore, that of the Katsina part should be considered by the president.”
Kaita said that the road did not only link Katsina and Kano State but also linked Nigeria with some parts of other African countries.

He further revealed that the state government had earlier expressed its stand on the compensation, but was discouraged by the decision of the Federal Ministry of Works.

According to Kaita, the Federal government has decided to appoint property valuers to evaluate the affected areas and submit to the state government for payment.

“If the Federal government insisted that we should pay the compensation, then, we have our building valuers that can do the job,” the commissioner said.

NAN.