Sunday 23 July 2017

New twist in Bafaw/Mukonje land saga:



Bafaws claim victory as Minister withdraws six land titles from Mukonje villagers 
By Doh Bertrand Nua in Kumba
Barrister Awuta, defending the Bafaws in the HTTC land dispute
The former President of Meme Lawyers Association, Barrister Awutah Philip Atubah who doubles as the lead counsel for the Bafaw Traditional Council on the land dispute pitting the Bafaws and the Mukonjes has revealed that all the six land certificates that the Mukonje community has been brandishing around on their ownership of the parcel of land allocated to host the administrative block of the Higher Technical Teachers Training College, HTTTC Kumba and the parcel of land opposite the site extending to the railway station were irregularly and fraudulently obtained.
                The legal luminary was speaking at a stormy press conference on Thursday July 20, 2017 at the Ocean City Radio in Kumba to educate the public on the position that has been taken by government vis a vis the land crisis following the gross violation of the laws on the situation.
                Barrister Awutah Philip Atubah went on a media offensive explaining that the Minister’s decision to withdraw the land titles comes in line with the irregularities and frauds noticed in the course of obtaining the six land certificates issued the Mukonje community within three months notwithstanding the difficult and cumbersome nature of obtaining a land certificate.
Hear him “the law provides that any person who can show prove of the effective occupation of land before 1974 when the land tenure ordinance came into law has a right to use such land and may apply for a land thereon” while adding that prove of possession of the land can only be done by showing evidence of crops planted and structures so that an assessment is then done to see how you have developed the land before a land certificate is been issued” clarified Barrister Awutah.
                He lamented the fact that this was never done because to him Mukonje has never been in effective possession of the land. Barrister averred the irregularities tie to one of the reasons why the Minister’s letter says Mukonjefrauded by pointing to developments of third party to be theirs thereby convincing the Kumba III land consultative board to make an assessment decision in their favour.
He went further to explain that “another element of irregularity which the minister pointed was the fact that the assessment report of the Kumba III land consultative board which recommended the issuance of land certificate came out two months after the land certificates were already out which means the land consultative board went and visited the land after the land certificates had already been issued.

                BarristerAwutah’s media outing follows Ministerial Order No. 767/Y.7/MINCAF/SG/DDOM/DAJ/D11//S100 signed by the Minister of State Property, Surveys and Land Tenure dating July 17, 2017 withdrawing land certificates  No. 3462, 3463, 3465, 3466, 3664 and 3448 given to the Mukonje community over the ownership of the disputed land.
Article one of the Ministerial order provided in the press conference by Barrister Awutah explains “it has been notedthat the procedures for issuing land titles No. No. 3462, 3463, 3465, 3466, 3664 and 3448/Meme were marred by irregularities including; the issuing of these land titles in spite of the objections duly raised, but neither addressed nor lifted, the marking of the boundaries of the allocated land on July 4, 2016, in the absence of the advisory commission which carried out its field visit on 9 September, 2016, that is two months later, lack of the signature of the local residents on the boundary-marking report and fraud by Mukonje village, consisting in claiming ownership of the development efforts of others to have the said land titles issued”
                The order which withdraws all the land titles equally indicates that all the plots concerned by the said land titles shall become the property of the state anew and orders the divisional delegation to each ensure the responsibility of implementing the said order.
                Quizzed on whether the withdrawal of the land certificates will affect that site of the HTTTC, BarristerAwuta revealed the decision does not affect the site of the location of the school because there was no land certificate issued relating to the area where the foundation stone of administrative block was laid. He noted that it is the land on the other side of the road directly opposite HTTTC where streets are mapped that is affected.
                He clarified that the HTTTC site fall within the Kumba chiefdom and not Mukonje as the case may be and as such Kumba should benefit from government compensations for the land if any and not Mukonje village.
                Barrister Awutahboosted that they are in possession of documents extracted from archives in Germany, Lagos and Benin which show an agreement between Mukonje and the people of Kumba. The man of law who gradually transformed himself into a historian and a traditional councilor revealed that Mukonje people are not indigenes of Southwest region.
Hear him “the Mukonjes are from Mombo and Mbanga as per historical facts. They escaped from wars and due to the hospitality of the Bafaws they were accommodated here and they used to pay land tax. Mukonje was a quarter in Kumba after a while about 1902 Kumba decided to give some freedom to Mukonje to operate as a village” he narrated.
                Barrister Awubapromised that on the basis of the fraud and irregularities noticed in the issue which has degenerated to this extent they will spare no effort in ensuring that the CONAC probes into the conditions under which the land titles were given and for persons who were involve to give an account of their various rules in the acquisition of the land certificates.  He indicates the intricacies created by the Meme land service in the wake of the Anglophone crisis in the NW/SW region can lead to another problem that can lead to loss of lives and property. He urges the administration and government to spare no effort in bringing to book the perpetrators of the act of such gross fraud which he attributes to corruption.

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