By Momodou Darboe
There now appears to be an end in sight to the squabbles between the Jatta Kunda clan in Busumbala and Jobe Kunda family of Serekunda as the ministry of lands did not only reportedly appoint an independent surveyor to demarcate the land in dispute but it also promised investigations into the circumstances surrounding 69 plots of land alleged to have been stolen from Jatta Kunda.
For three years now, the families of Jobe Kunda in Serekunda and Jatta Kunda in Busumbala have been involved in a bitter quarrel over boundaries of a land situated in Jabang amid allegations of underhand tactics by senior lands ministry officials as the friction tightens.
Sources close to Jatta Kunda clan told The Standard that 69 plots of their land in Jabang have been sold off to unsuspecting customers by unscrupulous businessmen and that the sales were aided and abetted by senior officials of the lands ministry and department of surveys.
“People have colluded with senior lands and surveys department officials to sell 69 plots of lands belonging to the people of Jatta Kunda,” a source alleged.
“It has been as a result of these corrupt practices that boundaries of the land in dispute could not still be identified three years after conflict over it began,” our source continued.
But in a conversation with The Standard, permanent secretary, Ministry of Lands, Buba Sanyang, said allegations of backhand deals against senior lands ministry officials would be taken seriously.
“We would ensure appropriate steps are taken but we can only do that when the land is demarcated,” he resolved.
He said the demarcation of the boundaries would help them to establish whether lands belonging to Jatta Kunda were indeed sold off.
Sanyang in an earlier interview told this medium that the land tension between the two families would soon be laid to rest now that his ministry had already identified an independent surveyor to identify the various limits of the land in dispute.
