By Mussa Mwangoka, The Citizen Correspondent
Rukwa. Milepa villagers in Sumbawanga District have rejected their fellow resident, accusing him of harassing them.
The incident occurred before a team of regional leaders led by regional commissioner Stella Manyanya, who attended a village congress for a reconciliation mission.The villagers sent their sentiments to the Regional Commissioner’s Office and on Tuesday, the RC and several other officers visited the village to resolve the issue.

In May last year, the villagers passed a resolution to deregister Said Mohammed, 40, on grounds that he has been taking the law into his own hands and harassing them without a due course.

Speaking at the rally, some of the villagers claimed that their fellow resident has been charging them fines of up to Sh500,000 when their cattle enter his farmland. They further alleged that if they fail to pay the imposed fines, he confiscates their livestock and slaughters them.

“We can’t continue living with this man... please RC, take him away with you, otherwise something terrible would happen,” warned Mr Potino Simfukwe, a villager.

For his part, the village chairman, Mr Godfrey Njelu, said complaints against Mr Mohammed were numerous and the villagers reached an agreement to deregister him.

However, in his reaction, Mr Mohammed, who was born at the village, accused village leaders of mobilising his fellow residents to reject him because he is aware of his rights.

He told the RC that he has been querying a number of things, which the village leaders do not do them right. Giving examples, he said, he has been against the way the Tanzania Social Action Fund (Tasaf) funds have been spent by the village leadership.

He went further to accuse village leaders of not taking actions despite tasking them over the influx of huge herds of cattle brought by pastoralists in the village without following proper procedures.

“I have also been pressing for the establishment of land management plan in order to allow for allocation of various areas for farming, livestock keeping and forest reserves but for two years the village leadership has been dillydallying,” the evicted villager told Ms Manyanya.

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