BY JULIET EKWENUGO
Kaduna
Natives of Dan Kande Community in Igabi Local Government of Kaduna State have decried activities of land agents which they said had led to avoidable conflicts and court cases.
Members of the sleepy community located about 15 kilometers along Kaduna-Zaria Express Road in interviews with our correspondent lamented rising cases of what they described as unwholesome acts of agents who carry out land transactions in a manner against established laws and regulations of the state.
A cross section of residents of Dan Kande spoken to had narrated one land dispute and the other which they stated had led to avoidable litigations, endangering in the process sustainable peace the farming community had enjoyed for many decades.
Musa Liman, a youth leader in the community narrated a land transaction dispute which led to an ongoing legal tussle between one poultry farm owner and some agents who shortchanged her after collecting a huge sum of money from the unsuspecting innocent woman but later reneged on their agreement after she found out that she had been made to pay almost double of the original price of the land.
“Some unscrupulous agents sold a piece of land to her at exorbitant price which she has started developing for her poultry business, only to come back and say she can’t develop the plots of land against all sense of justice so that they can extort more money from the buyer.
“Maybe they see her as a woman and intend to capitalize on that to oppress her by way of intimidation to erk more money from her.
“This is just one out of many cases surrounding land transactions in our community which urgently called for government’s monitoring and regulation,” he said.
Alhaji Salisu Ladan, a community leader described the activities of land agents in the area of capable of causing crisis, whose result he stated would not be palatable.
“This community is blessed with vast and rich land spread across fertile area rich for farming and other human development endeavors. Thus attracting interest from investors with the intention of establishing one venture or the other.
“Amidst this huge opportunity our community provides, land agents who often capitalize on naivity and inexperience of the buyers take advantage of this leverage to perpetrate unwholesome acts by heartlessly hiking the selling price of the plots or offering one plots to two or more buyers, throwing the whole process into avoidable litigations.
“These litigations usually cause bad blood and sow the seed of hatred among our people, depending on the side of the divides they are.
“We are calling on Kaduna State Government and other relevant authorities to wade in with the aim of regulating the activities of these people,”Ladan appealed.
Isa Sule, an Islamic Scholar who said he had lived in the community for over sixty years suggested a punitive action against any agent who had been found to have defrauded prospective buyers of their hard-earned money.
“It is pathetic and uncalled for seeing these agents displaying crass impunity and disregard for acts regulating land transactions. They will sell a plot of land at an exorbitant price to an individual and go back to sell it to another.
“This to me is criminal and an act capable of causing disrepute to the state government even though it is purely a dispute between two or more parties but the government could also share in the blame for abdicating its oversight responsibility.
“If any agent is found guilty or culpable he should be dealt with to serve as deterrence to others who have the intent of defrauding unsuspecting people of their money,”he suggested.
A well known opinion leader in Dan Kande Community Comrade Dantala Tailor, while attributing the problem to lack of strict regulations on issues concerning land transaction, urged Kaduna State Government to look into the matter with the aim of curtailing the activities of the agents which had been causing conflicts and legal tussles in the community.
