Governor Uba Sani has assured residents that no community in Kaduna State will face homelessness, emphasizing that his administration is deeply committed to preserving human dignity and the sanctity of life.
The Governor made the promise while distributing land titles to communities in Igabi local government, whose lands have been a subject of dispute 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 coming of 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 directed the Director General of Kaduna State Geographic Information Service(KADGIS), Dr Bashir Ibrahim Garba, to give plots of land to the affected communities, including farmlands.
Speaking at the Birnin Yero Tsohuwa Primary School on Sunday, the Governor disclosed that there were over 5,000 people living within the affected communities and more than 2,000 of them had 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 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 the human dignity. We also gave each one of you a farmland as a means of livelihood because 90% of you are farmers,’’ he added.
Governor Uba Sani also promised the communities five trucks of free fertiliser, in addition to extending a special intervention to enable them stand on their feet.
‘’I have directed the Secretary to Kaduna State Government, together with the Commissioner of Finance and 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 that 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 Kaduna State Government will not abandon any community, adding that ‘’our heart bleeds when we saw the level of the pain and what happened to you.’’
Governor Uba 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, the Director General of KADGIS, Dr Bashir Ibrahim Garba, disclosed that the Governor Uba Sani administration has 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 DG recalled that the communities that were 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.’’
Dr Garba commended the Governor for not only resolving the land matter but for also giving the communities farmlands that will sustain them because majority are farmers.
What You Should Know
A decade-old land dispute between the military and local residents in Igabi Local Government, Kaduna State, has finally come to an end as Governor Uba Sani steps in to compensate over 2,000 displaced individuals. The affected households are receiving brand new residential plots, agricultural lands to restart their livelihoods, free fertilizer, and direct social intervention funds from the state government.
- Positive Impact: Displaced families receive permanent relief, free land for housing and farming, and financial support to revive small businesses, restoring their dignity and economic stability after ten years of hardship.
- Potential Concerns: Although the governor has provided alternative solutions, the original legal dispute remains pending in court, highlighting the need for permanent structural boundaries between military zones and civilian settlements.
