10 traditional rulers in trouble in Borno, arrested by security officials

macfranc007 November 05, 2017 Nigeria News today & Breaking news ▷ Read Nigerian newspapers 24/7 Eromosele Ebhomele

- The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) said it arrested the village heads in Maiduguri

- The NSCDC, Mr Ibrahim Abdullahi, confirmed this saying the suspects allegedly duped their victims in connivance with state officials

- He warned the public to be mindful of such dubious practices

Ten traditional rulers in Borno have been arrested for allegedly engaging in land grabbing and swindling of the public in Maiduguri, the capital of the state.

They were arrested by men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).

The commandant of NSCDC, Mr Ibrahim Abdullahi, confirmed this saying most of the ward heads had perpetrated more than five land fraud on innocent persons with the connivance of some government workers.

“The culprits normally take advantage of people who don’t always check up on their plots of land.

“Whenever they notice that a land owner is not always around, they make fake papers and sell the plots to unsuspected individuals.

“There are instances where one plot of land is being sold to five or six different persons. What they do is that they usually change their names during the fraudulent transactions.

“We are doing whatever we can to get back the money of the people they defrauded and take the suspected ward heads to court to face the law,” NAN reports him as saying.

According to Abdullahi, the Dispute Resolution Department of the NSCDC command in Borno so far recorded 38 cases of land grabbing perpetrated by ward heads in Maiduguri in two months.

NAIJ.com earlier reported that in Lagos, traditional rulers must be very careful with issues concerning the sales and control of land if they do not want to be dethroned.

The state government says it would dethrone any monarch caught engaging in land grabbing.

The government frowns at land-grabbing which is now a criminal offence.

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