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Allied Cargo Freighters now wants Tabata dampo victims out
2008-05-08 10:02:04
By Guardian Reporters
In a dramatic twist yesterday, Allied Cargo Freighters Ltd, the company claiming to be the legitimate occupant of a plot at Tabata Dampo area in Dar es Salaam where dozens of houses were illegally pulled down early this year, has given the victims until tomorrow to pack and leave.
A statement issued yesterday in Dar es Salaam and signed by the company managing director Nicholaus Chawe said the victims currently sheltering themselves in tents should vacate the place by May 9, this year.
Describing the victims as invaders of plot number 25 that it owned legally, the company asked Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner Abbas Kandoro to facilitate voluntary relocation of the victims, the tents and their properties.
The company said in an eight-page statement: ``We are the rightful owner of the plot, hence we request the government through its state organs including the police to provide us with enough security on May 9, 2008.``
It said that on Friday, this week they would go to the plot located along Mandela Expressway to start ``company activities,`` whose details could not be immediately availed, but informed: ``We have contracted Majembe Auction Mart and court brokers to assist us in the exercise of removing the illegal invaders of our plot.``
For his part, the Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner, Abbas Kandoro, said in an interview yesterday that he would not act upon the matter until he received official communication about it.
He explained that the authority to order people out of the plot was vested with those who pulled down the houses.
``This means it is not me or my office, but the Ilala Municipal Council. It is this municipality that implements all urban planning laws.
And since these are the people who demolished the houses, they should be the same people to know the fate of the people and where they should be taken to,`` he said.
Kandoro urged the company to send him a copy of the document so that he could respond to their request. Ilala Municipal Director Idd Nyundo, was apparently not available for comment.
Commenting on the order given to them, one of the Tabata Dampo demolition victims, Msabaha Shabani, who claimed was representing others at the municipal council in getting clarification on the matter, said a team of victims met their division executive officer, who told them that he was not aware of the order.
``We have also communicated with the lawyer for Ilala Municipal Council who told us that he does not have information too, that we are required to vacate from the area within two days,`` he said.
However Shabani said the victims can not vacate within two days as their demands were yet to be met. ``They have not given us the said plots where we can start our new residences. But also the compensation is yet to be done as they are paying slowly,`` he asserted.
Shabani said they were working on the problem, but they were not in a plan to move from the area.
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