Former Senator denies hijacking farmers land in Taraba
By Andrew Ojih, Jalingo.
The former Senator representing the Central Senatorial Zone of Taraba State, Sen. Dahiru Bako Gassol on Tuesday denied media publication that he was grabbing farmers’ land in Sendirde village in Gassol Local Government Area of the state.
Speaking in an exclusive interview, Bako said the 5, 479 . 50 hectares he was wrongly accused of hijacking was a community land.
He stressed that the land was not his own, noting that there was an issue between the community and Shorest leadership over who owns the land which the community during the administration of former Governor Darius Ishaku took the case to court and won.
“I Senator Dahiru Bako Gassol has no land there, I have nothing to do with the land either, it is a community land which nobody can intrude into.
When there were issues, the opponents i.e the Shorest leadership who claimed to be owners of land wanted to appeal the case, but we all sat and think of the way forward.
At the end, we took the case to the state government, and after the government went through the case, they discovered the rightful owners and gave them back their land” he said.
He informed that those who were accusing him of hijacking their farmlands were just given the land to farm under shorest and agrictec leadership.
He hinted that those who are making noise over the land are doing that for their selfish reasons, adding that they are crying out because their quest to take over the land from the community failed.
“Even when the crisis over this land started, we sat down with the paramount ruler of Gassol for more then 10 times to finetone on the way forward but yielded no results. And that was why the community had no any other option but to approach the court” he added.
He urged those accusing him of hijacking farmlands in Gassol LGA of the state to desist, stressing that if not they will all meet at the court.
