Benjamin Ngah in Bafut
The Mayor of Bafut, Langsi Abel
Ngwasoh and some of his close collaborators including the 4th Deputy
Mayor and three council workers have been dragged to court by an Elite of the
area whose names The Times Journal is holding back on sensitive grounds. He is
charging them for the destruction of a band of foodstuffs and the disturbance
of his quiet enjoyment over a piece of land marked down by the council to host
the Bafut cattle market. The Mayor and co have already appeared in court for
preliminary investigations and the case postponed for the 28th of
October, 2014 The issue was avidly discussed by councilors during the 3rd
ordinary session of the Bafut Council aimed at deliberations bearing on the
addition of credits from the Public Investment Budget (PIB) and the transfer of
some credits from one budget head to another.
Councilors who unanimously expressed
bitterness, dismay and anger regarding the behavior of such an individual requested
the SDO to hasten the planting of pillars in the area to demarcate the Bafut
cattle Market. They questioned why the individual instead of taking the council
to court rather chose the Mayor and five others as individuals. This according
to them was not short of witching.
In a related development, Mayor Langsi told
councilors that the appeal against the court ruling in the matter between the
Council and Ivan Emmanuel on the issue of a building permit at Agyati Market
Square has been ruled in favor of the Council. As per the ruling, the previous
court ruling asking the Council to issue a building permit to Ivan has been
declared null and void.
Another delicate issue which came up
and should not be under looked by the authorities else it could escalate was
the Land crisis between Bafut and Nkwen over Nforya. According to the Mayor, “the construction of
market sheds in Nforya finally started off on a different piece of land and not
at the Nforya market Square as initially earmarked due to the dispute raised by
the Fon of Nkwen.” This he said was done in order to safeguard the credits allocated
for the project and put it into use while the land crisis is being looked into.
Despite the numerous problems facing
the council including the drop in sand revenue because of the prohibition by
the Governor of the North West Region on vehicle weighing above 3.5tones to ply
the Bafut –Befang road, the reduction of global tax in the transport sector as
one of the measures to tackle adverse effect of fuel price hikes and the
difficulties in tax collection in general, the Council performance was
impressive as several projects earmarked were realized and many ongoing.
Some of the project realized ranged
from the construction and equipping of classrooms, equipping of health centers,
construction of market sheds, building of culverts, work at the Bafut municipal
stadium which is ongoing, the acquisition of a 20ton truck, the award of
scholarship to over eighty four students worth FCFA1, 680,000 and 229 students
benefitting from a total of FCFA3, 000,000 as remuneration for taking part in
holiday jobs offered by the council.
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