Adamawa Community, Dep Gov Clash over Road

Tempers are rising between the residents of Kofare community and the Deputy Governor of Adamawa State, Alhaji Sa’ad Tahir, over the alleged blockade of the only access road to the community.
The residents, who vowed to explore all legal means to seek redress over the alleged injustice, accused the Deputy Governor of forcefully taking over land, despite the fact that the Murtala Nyako administration had compensated him for the piece of land, three years ago.
One of the affected residents, Musa Kofare, alleged that Tahir, who, three months after he was appointed the Deputy Governor, blocked the road, without considering the plight of the people.
“He is just using his new position as Deputy Governor to reclaim the land he already collected compensation for. We have petitioned the Police, State Security Services and the Emirate Council to intervene and save us from this injustice”, Musa added.
Another resident, Maiwada Pullo, criticised the Deputy Governor for promoting his business interests above public interest, adding that as an elite, giving up ownership of the land for the use of the community should not have been a problem to him, even if he was not occupying a political position.
“It is unfortunate for him to stoop so low to shortchange hundreds of people he was expected to lead and assist in any way to ameliorate their suffering.
“I have never seen this kind of situation, where government would pay compensation on a land to a person and he would later reclaim the land”, Pullo said.
When contacted, the ward Head of Kofare, Mallam Abdullahi Idris, said he was aware of the development and had contacted his superiors.
“I was just told that some people were blocking the main access road to the ward. Nobody spoke to me before they started the work and when I contacted them, they claimed to be working on the instruction of the Deputy Governor, I contacted my superior, Mai Jimilla, who advised that we write a formal letter of complaint on the matter”, Idris said.
Idris explained that the blockade of the road would cause untold hardship not only to the residents but to a major construction company in the area.
Effort to get the Deputy Governor on the development through his media aide, Abubakar Dasin, was fruitless as the aide, who promised to get his boss’ reaction, did not, as at the time of filing this report.