Every community has one thing or the other that they esteem highly, down here land is that thing. Most people's assets down here are land, it's one of the commodities that never depreciates but appreciates.
Most of the assets parents leave for their children to inherit are land. It's one of the businesses that also booms very well. So people don't take anything that has to do with land here lightly.
A family can be divided because of the issue of land. People can go to any length (physical and spiritual) to fight over land, almost every day people visit the court to settle land issues.
About three weeks ago, a man in my village was murdered for standing as a witness over a land case. If you want to lose your life within a short time, get involved in a land fight and you will see wonders.
In the year 2020, before the coronavirus outbreak, my father bought a piece of land from his friend and he didn't hesitate, he started building on it.
Then the issue of corona came and he stopped. When everything subsided and the lockdown was lifted, my Dad decided to resume his project. He came with workers one of those days to work for him and while they were working, a group of people came and asked them to stop. That they were building on someone's land.
My father was surprised, he called his friend whom he bought the land and to his shock, the guy told him he was not in town.
My Dad took the matter to the community leader because the man was aware of the transaction between my father and his friend over the land.
The district head resolved the issue and my father was made to understand the land he bought wasn't his friend's, it belonged to one of their uncles.
To cut the story short, they agreed to let my father have the land but cut some portion out of it.
While my father was still building the house, he had an accident the following year and he lost his life. During that time, the new land papers were still with the sellers because they were making amends on it from the initial 200 ft by 100 ft which my Dad bought earlier from his friend to 100 ft by 100 ft
My Dad took me and one of his friends and showed us the portion they cut out for him before they finished amending the new agreement. He even planted some plants at the boundaries.
After his demise, I and the person my Dad showed the boundaries to went to get the land paper and then we started hearing a fresh story.
The people said they had to measure the land again. We didn't argue, we followed them and to our surprise, they said the land my dad bought is 100ft by 50ft. I told the man, "Sir, the land is 100ft by 100ft." I took him to the boundaries and showed him the plants my father planted but they said our land didn't reach there.
They said if we want the remaining portion we have to pay. I got so angry, that I told the man, "You people already cut some portion of the land while he was alive, and you allowed him to plant trees at his boundaries, now because he is dead, you still want to cut another portion?"
The man didn't reply, he measured 100ft by 50ft and said put your demarcation here, and he handed the land paper to me.
When I got home I told my mother about it and she was furious too. We wanted to take the case to court but we didn't have enough evidence. My Dad made a terrible mistake by not collecting the agreement on time. But who can cheat dead? I believe all of us will also die one day.
Our hands were just tight, we were cheated right before our eyes and there was nothing we could do. The greedy guy who sold the land to my father later returned and even had the nerve to come and greet us when we moved in. Well, we forgave him and moved on.
