Imboela urges gov’t to listen to chiefs’ calls on 1958 boundaries maps

By NATION REPORTER

GOVERNMENT should seriously consider revisiting the 1958 Chiefdom Boundaries Maps because they have become a real source of conflicts among the country’s traditional leaders, Saboi Imboela has said.
Ms Imboela, the leader of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) says she is aware that many traditional leaders have been complaining and appealing to Government to relook at the chiefdoms boundaries maps because of the confusion and conflicts that have been created as a result of the old colonial maps.
She said it was disheartening that traditional leaders were still using the colonial 1958 Chiefdoms Boundaries Maps most of which had lost their original beacons thereby making chiefdoms to encroach into each other.
She said in an interview yesterday that land was a very sensitive issue and it was best that Government moved to resolve the chiefdom boundaries challenges before the conflicts escalate to dangerous levels.
“We have read and heard of conflicts in chiefdoms that are as a result of the challenges caused by the 1958 Chiefdoms Boundaries Maps.
These maps were drawn by the colonialists and in some cases, beacons have been lost and the chiefdoms are either knowingly or unknowingly encroaching into each other for different reasons including resources.
Our call to government, through the office of the Surveyor General is that they should visit these chiefdoms and resolve the challenges before they escalate into conflicts in our chiefdoms,” Ms Imboela said.
She explained that there was a real danger that should it fail to revisit and resolve the boundaries maps, chiefdoms would continue experiencing conflicts.
She however advised that the traditional leaders should remain calm and resist the temptation of taking the law into their own hands but should try to resolve and settle their differences amicably.
“Chiefdoms experiencing boundaries conflicts are in fact neighbours and often their subjects relate to each other.
Others have relatives in neighbouring chiefdoms and it is advisable that our traditional leaders should work to continue co-existing while they work to resolve their boundaries amicably.
We know for a fact that land has been the cause of many conflicts in the world and should therefore be handled carefully,” Ms Imboela said.