From Yakubu Busari, Jos
A serious land dispute, which may lead to the breakdown of law and order in Jos North Local Government, is brewing between the family of Wakili Jatau and those it considers trespassers following the alleged illegal and indiscriminate sale of its land to individuals and institutions, including the University of Jos.
Its was gathered that those who claime they purchased land from one Wakili Jatau family through their agents have express fear that they might lose their land without compensation.
The Wakili Jatau family who are claiming ownership say their land was taken over by government without compensation. In an attempt to reclaim it, they wrote to those they considered illegal occupiers, including the university of Jos management to indicate interested and start negotiation for acquisition. The university, they claimed, not only refused to reply to their letter, written through their lawyers after obtaining a court injunction, it went in to encroach further into portions of the land belonging to the family.
“We observe that some interested buyers who purchased it from us with original C.O are now encroaching on other parts of Naraguta village which is our ancestral inherited land.
As thing stand now, there are many aggrieved voices speaking about injustice about the disputed land. There are private buyers and occupiers who are confused about the claims of the family, there are corporate buyers and occupiers like the Nigeria Mining Corporation and the University of Jos and the which is insisting on ownership and then the family owners, crying foul over trespass.
This might spark off fresh violence as those individuals who purchased the said land are accusing government for doing nothing to save their property now under threat. They also accused the University of Jos management for using security personnel to harass, intimidate them and their families.
The community leaders have said the looming crises can be averted if government can listen to their plight and take amicable steps to resolve the dispute by inviting the buyers and owners to a closed- door meeting or else the feud could lead to a breech of the law. They say a fact- finding committee set up by previous governments showed bias in their reports.
Information available to our medium reveals that the family of Wakili Jatau, the beneficiaries of the said land has documents to back its claim.
The representative of Wakili Jatau family sold the said piece of land to individuals and some corporate entities at the Naraguta village of Jos North with documents but thereafter some of the occupiers like the university has denied the family of Jatau as the original owner.
When the previous state government discover that there were serious problem involved in the disputed land, it set of fact- finding committee. Nothing concrete came out of the committee report. Now individual buyers are licking their wounds as members of the community are threatening to re-occupy the land.
According to Wakili Jatau family in a letter dated June 18, 2016 which was signed by the following members, Alasko Wakili Jatau, Adala Wakili Jatau, Shakara Wakili Jatau, Ishaku Wakili Jata, Monday Wakili Jatau and, Ibrahim Wakili Jatau, they had been seeking justice for years and nothing seems to have come out of it
In an application for request to use the family land addressed to the Office of the Director General, Bureau of Public Enterprises, Abuja, FCT, the family said that the land has not been compensated for by the Nigeria Mining Corporation which had occupied the land for 30 years and now people are now copying its illegality by building houses on the land.
They said; “We have complained severally to the company (Nigeria Mining Corporation ) In Jos almost every years for the past 10 years now and there is no any positive response .
“However, in one of our complain against the erection of illegal structure on our family land at Naraguta village, which unknown persons had trespassed by clearing, we said we tried to stop the trespassers for the good three years but they rebuffed our appeals and even threatened our lives.”
As another option, they decided to put in application on March 14, 2016 to the Commissioner, Ministry of Land, Survey and Town Planning for the demarcation of the boundary of their land with the Nigeria Mining Corporation.
“This is due to the non-existence of boundary beacons that was initially on the ground but did not exist at that time, to avoid instances of encroachment either by us or the corporation, as we wished to put our land into use.”
The family of Wakili Jatau through their counsel, Samuel Kasuwa, CEO of RON properties Ltd located ar shop No 10 Eluzai shopping Mall,opposite St Murumba College, Jos ,Plateau state, said they wrote to the University of Jos management to express interest and pay for the portion of the said land it was occupying and that they got no reply.
Failure to reply, they warned in the letter, could lead to the university indirectly asserting the right of the family to dispose off all the land to prospective buyers.
Our correspondent spoke with the University of Public Relations Officer of the University of Jos, Mr Abdullahi Abdullahi on phone. He merely stated that the state government has taken over the matter and so would rather wait for official intervention.
When pressed further, he said the university did not encroach on the said land. He said there are two issues on ground; one is the land was donated to the university by former Police Governor of the state during the era of military regime, late Joseph Gwomwalk, in 1976.
Also, he said the university has all documents to prove her claims.
He refuted the allegations that the university is using security personnel to harassed and intimidate others on the disputed land, but maintained that the university is the legitimate owner of the land.
One of the spokesman of the private buyers, told our reporter that security operatives had always harassed them and even killed some people because of the on going land dispute, adding “we have lost many lives of innocent people in the process.”
Meanwhile, the member representing Jos North, North Constituency, Hon Ibrahim Baba-Hassan has appealed for calm and peaceful co-existence amongst the communities in the LGA.
He advised them to wait for with the intervention of government and be ready to embrace dialogue as the best option in resolving the land dispute.
