District Head Raises Alarm Over Encroachment Of 169 Hectares Of Farmlands By  Nigeria Film Institute ,JUTH ,Others

Yakubu Busari

The Nigeria Film Institute ,NFI ,has been accused for sins  of encroaching into their farmland belonging to the people of Kukpis District of Jos North Local Government Council of Plateau State to a total of 169 hectares which belongs to  Izere speaking natives .

 

Worried over the incessant killings and attack on his subjects ,HRH Adagwom Kaze Atsi speaking to our correspondent at his resident in Nukpis district Headquarters on Thursday in Jos ,reiterated the absence of federal ,state governments in their settlement which is not far from the headquarters of five federal government agencies when they claim that they have only one of their son working in JUTH as a doctor .

 

The Royal  father lamented that the Jos University Teaching Hospital ,Federal College of Laboratory Science ,Nigeria Film Institute ,National Institute for Policy and strategic Study ,NIPSS ,were all sited within their three districts but they are not beneficiaries especially in the area of employment ,admission ,social responsibility and roads construction in their dormant.

 

We had experience of the injustice done to us by the former military Governors of Plateau state ,capt Dansuleiman who donated  farmlands allowing poor helpless farmers languishing in object poverty .

 

He disclosed that  some  landed properties were sold to the NFI while they forcefully confiscated some  without due consultation done  with the natives  and there is  no single agreement signed or reach with documentary evidence to prove that our people actually sold out the said lands or they were involve in the whole transaction .

 

They demarcated the numbers of hectares of land they wanted without paying compensation to any family land owners since the sited all these tertiaries institutions .

 

According to him ,we are not against federal  government developing in our community but no present of government here to show for  that  considering huge amongst of farmlands they confiscated without paying any kobo to us as the natives .

 

We appealing to the authority concern not to take advantage of our peaceful disposition to continue to forcefully use power to confiscate our ancestral farmlands .

 

The Nigeria Film Institute permanent site was sold out by Baba MUSA IZAM at rate 21 million naira only of which that has been demarcated as their headquarters right now but this chameleon movement of the management of the institute was the one that gave our people worried and concern because nobody had come to intimate us the development as the rightful owners of the landed properties here in Lamingo .

 

The district including his chiefs across frowned that as community leaders their youth have been redundant roaming about without employment and issue of education no primary or secondary schools sited close to us for our children acquire western education .

However ,2 years ago the youths in my district nearly burnt down my house thinking that they have paid all the compensation to me and I decided not tell them but after several intervention they came to realize that no kobo was paid to me or my own local chiefs .

 

So our call to the NFI is for them to vacate our land which they are laying claim without proper compensation and learned that German Government are planning to invest huge to improve the NFI we are not against the ideas but the authority concern should do the needful by meeting with us the land owners before embarking on such development or else nothing will happen in these large farmlands.

 

Even as custodian of the traditional institutions in Izere land we were never invited by any of these institutions to sit in round table or know the activities going on here due to environmental pollution going on .

 

One of the chief ,Madaki Abok Kaze said their worried and concern is that the renaming of Lamingo was not in their dialect and the surrounding names didn’t tally with the traditional culture of Nukpis extraction ,so we haven’t been enjoying any social amenities from the government .

 

Kaze expressed displeasure with the way and manner the institutions of this calibre can’t offer admission ,construction road network linking these affected communities with drinking water or boreholes but they living on dead row .

 

He raised alarm that JUTH which located within their ancestral farmlands they couldn’t enjoy health facilities rather their members died without them being treated by any medical personnel because they can’t afford money for medical payments.

 

Kaze noted they petty traders who Hawks within the JUTH ,NFI are been chase away like lepers getting close to spoils their food and constant ambush and killings of our youth call for serious concern that is the reason why we decided to take step to secure the future of our unborn generation .

 

These management didn’t take out their precious time to come and visit our communities inspire the long history of their existence here .

 

Reaction to their complained ,one of the Senior management staff of NFI who never want his names mentioned in the prints said they have been in constant touch with the youths and  community leaders but none have brought such complaint of attack and killings of their members to him .

 

According to him ,last week the institute matriculated students but no single complained of lopsided admission was mention but for the cooperate social responsibility of institute no commence to that effect .

 

He also reiterated that the Director and information unit has been saddle with the right speak on the development of the institute .