Tension in Taraba over forceful acquisition of Land

INDICATIONS have emerged that the peace presently being enjoyed in the ancient town of Wukari in Wukari Local Council of Taraba State may be thwarted.

This, The Guardian learnt, was no doubt necessitated due to forceful acquisition of land measuring about 200 hectares from the community by the state government.

The land, which presently housed the federal university, was said to have been forcefully taken from the community without the state government deeming it fit to follow due process.

Though the community, as reliably gathered by The Guardian, has dragged the state government, the said university and other parties concerned to court for unlawful trespassing on the land, the youths in the community have appealed to the Federal Government to, as a matter of urgency, call the state government to order before they would be compelled to react.

Some of them bared their minds to the way and manner the state government took over the said land without the knowledge of the land-owners, majority of who are peasants.

One of the youths, who gave his name as Adda, said: “The land belongs to our fore fore-fathers, and it is the proceed from this land that our fathers have been using to sponsor our education.”

Sad that the state government did not consult the land-owners before arriving at the decision to build the institution on the land, Adda and some of his colleagues said the action of the state government has not only forced “some of us out of schools, but has as well made us to become beggars in our community.”

Apart from not being compensated, another grouse of the people towards the state government was the deliberate refusal to dialogue with the people before acquiring the land, an action, according to the community, has forced some of the land-owners to the graveyards due to their inability to meet up with their responsibilities as the said land was their only source of livelihood.

In his comment, the state governor, Darius Dickson Ishaku, through his Senior Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Sylvanus Y. Giwa, said he has not yet been briefed on how the land was acquired.

Promising to intervene as soon as he is properly briefed on the matter, he urged the people to desist from taking the laws into their hands.