Bauchi State government has reiterated its readiness to resolve the boundary dispute between communities in Itas-Gadau local government area of the state and Kafin Hausa local government area of Jigawa State.
During a fact finding visit, the deputy governor, Auwal Mohammed Jatau, who doubles as the chairman of the boundary commission, commended the communities for not taking law into their hands.
He said by reporting whatever intrusion they encountered from neighbouring communities showed that the two parties were ready for dialogue and peace.
Represented by his special assistant on boundary matters, Ahmad Garba, Jatau urged communities in Itas-Gadau and Kafin Hausa to maintain the spirit of living peacefully with one another as the matter was before the National Boundary Commission, which is responsible for the resolution for inter-state boundary disputes.
He said, “It is a pleasure for me to welcome you all to this very important gathering here taking place in Itas with a view to putting heads together to see things for the commission, to report it to the state government for further appropriate action.
“I want to assure you that the state boundary commission is doing everything possible towards the demarcation exercise, hence the need for you to exercise more patience on the task before the commission of this nature,” Jatau said.
He informed the communities that the final demarcation of Bauchi/Jigawa inter-state boundary had reached an advanced stage of field work exercise which was undertaken in November last year and ended with minor differences where the state commission suggested for an additional field work with a view to resolving the matter that will pave way for a Joint Meeting of Official (JMO), under the National Boundary Commission to agree on the final demarcation of all the contending sectors of the boundary of Itas/Kafin Hausa, Zaki/Kiri Kasamma, Maruta/Gurmun and Shira/Gwaram of Bauchi and Jigawa states.
The deputy governor assured stakeholders that the commission with the support of Governor Bala Mohammed would discharge its assigned responsibilities diligently especially providing dialogue mechanisms for amiable resolution of all boundary related issues across the state.
Stakeholders who spoke at the visit acknowledged the tireless efforts of the commission in working with communities to address boundary issues in an acceptable manner.
