Puntland President Sends Stern Warning Against Landgrabbing

[Deeq A.]

Garowe (PP News Desk) — Puntland State President Said Abdullahi Deni yesterday sent a stern warning to landgrabbing cliques behind the spate violence over land disputes in Garowe. President Deni urged security forces and the judiciary to deal harshly with landgrabbers.

“Puntland Government will not pay blood-money to families of landgrabbers who take up arms against security forces cracking down on landgrabbing misdemeanours” said President Deni at a meeting on planning organised by Puntland Development Research Center.

President Deni has outlined tough measures against landgrabbing cliques in Garowe.

Garowe, the seat of Puntland State Government, has experienced a high rate of land disputes caused by an authorised occupation of public lands in parts of Garowe and its outskirts. A 13 metre square plot of land in Garowe costs almost twice as high a similar-sized plot of land in Galka’yo or Qardho.

“People see plots of land acquired by politicians and their hangers-on, and therefore view landgrabbing as a quicker way to make fortune” said a former Garowe Municipality senior planning officer who prefers to be quoted anonymously.

To some locals, land redistribution is an urgent task. “Land disputes caused by landgrabbing is the tip of the iceberg. Puntland has a political class with illegally acquired land holdings” said Ibraahim Mohamud, a former real estate and land broker in Garowe.

President Deni called on people involved in land disputes not to resort to violence. “Puntland has courts that can adjudicate on land disputes” added President Deni.

© Puntland Post, 2021

The post Puntland President Sends Stern Warning Against Landgrabbing appeared first on Puntland Post.