By Nahum Sule (Taraba State Correspondent, in Jalingo)
The Chairman of Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) in Taraba state, Mr. Yakubu Agbaizo, has raised the alarm over community residents' encroaching on government primary schools lands.
Speaking to journalists in an interactive session in Jalingo on Monday, the Chairman said land encroachment has become a major problem. People build on schools lands in Taraba sate without conscience.
Decrying the worrying situation, he asserts that “Some of the school lands where given way back in the 60s and 70s. Some of the encroachers discovered that their parents or great grand parents gave the lands to the government and concluded that the government must compensate them or they claim their ancestral land by cultivating it or building on it.
“For example, there is a modern school in the Sabon gari area in Jalingo, where the contractor started the work, but suddenly, some people came and said it was their land and they have to be compensated. UBEC doesn't pay compensation so the project has been abandoned. They frustrated the contractor out. That's how it has been. In fact, in some schools, some people started building on the football field. It's an issue that has to stop because public schools need space”, Agbaizo said.
He further stated that, if the community has decided to give a large portion of land to the school, they expect that they as custodians of the community should keep to their words. He further stated that to abate such menace, UBEC have engaged in capturing schools land and doing a proper land ownership documents to stop future occurrences. NNL.
