Governor Darius Ishaku of Taraba state has warned the 49 third class Chiefs in the state against illegal allocation of lands in their domains to strange people and foreign investors.
The governor, gave the warning during a second meeting with the Royal Fathers, held at the Executive Chamber in government house Jalingo.
Ishaku, had on the 13th of May this year met with the 3rd class chiefs after their appointments to further their discussions on peace and security in all the Chiefdoms.
He said, allocating lands without due process is one the major causes of crisis in mist of the chiefdoms, adding that henceforth, no Royal father should allocate without the approval of the government.
According Ishaku, even a local government Chairman does not have a right to issue out land certificate of occupancy to anybody or investor without following due process.
“We leant that some Chanise citizens were coming to our state without even a passport and some time ago, i warned against cutting of Madrid tree which these Chanise people used to connive with some of our citizens cutting the trees.
“These are people that you cannot go to their country and do such things and they leave you” Ishaku noted.
While reminding the Royal fathers on the purpose of their appointments, the governor also charged them on the need to ensuring that people at the grassroots are feeling the impact of the government policies and programmes.
“We are doing our best in paying your salaries but am not happy that some of you does not pay their District heads and Village heads based on the reports i received.
“The information we need has to come from the village heads to the District heads down to the Chiefs, so if you don’t pay them salary how would they have the mora to work hard, therefore, i want you to desist from such act.
“I also have reports that some of you those not give security reports on timely bases and i don’t know either your local government chairmen are calling you for security meetings.
“We are worried especially on the high rate of kidnapping and land disputes in most of your Chiefdoms and chief has a right to sell out any land without the concept of the government.
“I’m also aware that some of you do travel without the approval of the local government Chairman, therefore, henceforth, no Chief should be traveling without the approval of LG Chairman, because i will not accept that, because all of us are sons of the government” Ishaku emphasized.
Commenting on the high rate of kidnapping in some parts of the state, Governor Darius Ishaku expressed worried which he attributed the menace to having some bad elements in the society who are serving as informants.
“Based on the security report i received, what happened in Maisamari was that, someone sold his caws at the sum of N50m which as a result of informants who mostly happened to be friends or people within the localities thought that the man took the money to his house and they informed the kidnappers which is so bad”. Said Ishaku.
“We are working and finding information on such criminal acts and henceforth we are going back to old days system of using traditional rulers on check mating the influence of strangers into our state.
“We are going to train you on adminstration for at least one week with a view to equip you with knowledge on how to be carrying out your work.
“We also have boundary problems among the new Chiefdoms, which we are working on how to resolve such issues and i am also not happy that some of you are not in good time with each other, i wonder how this thing is happening because there is no where i have ever heard that Royal Fathers are having conflict between them, so i urged you to be on the same page with one another” The Governor stressed.
