Governor Uba Sani has vowed that no community will be rendered homeless in Kaduna because his administration believes in human dignity and the sanctity of life.
The governor made the promise while distributing land titles to communities in Igabi council area, whose lands have been the subject of disputes between the military and the inhabitants.
Comprising 704 houses, the benefitting communities include Unguwan Malam Auta, Unguwan Alhassan and Unguwan Lauya as well as Unguwan Aboki, Unguwan Danjuma, Unguwan Musa and Unguwan Yohana.
The alleged land seizure took place before the present administration, and when he came on board, Governor Uba Sani tried to resolve the matter amicably, to no avail.
Although the matter is still in court, he asked the director-general of Kaduna State Geographic Information Service (KADGIS), Bashir Garba, to give plots of land to the affected communities, including farmlands.
Speaking at Birnin Yero Tsohuwa Primary School on Sunday, the governor said over 5,000 people live in the affected communities, and more than 2,000 have been displaced because of the land dispute.
‘’Today, we gathered here not only to give free plots of land to all the members of the communities and the households. We are also here to ensure that we look at other problems. ’Apart from giving you plots of land, ensuring that all of you have decent shelter is important to our administration because we believe in human dignity. We also gave each one of you a farmland as a means of livelihood because 90% of you are farmers,’’ he added.
Mr Sani also promised the communities five trucks of free fertiliser, in addition to a special intervention to help them stand on their feet.
‘’I have directed the secretary to Kaduna state government, together with the commissioner of finance and the commissioner of planning and budget, to sit down with your leaders so as to support you with social intervention.
‘’We believe all the people here, particularly those who are vulnerable, deserve a level of compensation from our government. So, we are going to give you social intervention, so that some of you that have lost their livelihoods will quickly go back to their activities, particularly those involved in small businesses,’’ he promised.
The governor assured that the Kaduna government will not abandon any community, adding that ‘’our heart bleeds when we saw the level of the pain and what happened to you.’’
Mr Sani commended the communities for living in peace irrespective of their ethno-religious differences and party affiliations.
‘’I’ve seen the level of togetherness between the Muslims and Christians within these communities. You work together as one family. When the incident happened, I was informed you treated each other as one family,’’ he added.
In his welcome remarks, Mr Garba disclosed that Mr Sani’s administration resolved 5,285 inherited land cases.
‘’The governor has also supported more than 2,000 communities that were displaced by either disputes or land issues,’’ he added.
The KADGIS boss recalled that the communities being compensated were displaced by the military, adding that “it is a 10-year dispute that has been lingering in court and past governments couldn’t resolve the matter”.
Mr Garba commended the governor not only for resolving the land matter but also for giving the communities farmland to sustain them, since most are farmers.
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