Bafaws claim victory as Minister withdraws
six land titles from Mukonje villagers
By Doh Bertrand Nua in Kumba
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| 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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