Association Of Nigerian Authors: Organisation yet to recover Cof O for Writers' village

Members of the Association of Nigerian Authors have yet to recover the Certificate of Occupancy for the Writers' village.

The 35th International Convention of the Association of Nigerian Authors was held between October 27 and 29, 2016.

The annual event was held in Abuja and members of the organisation discussed the state of the proposed Mamman Vatsa Writers' Village.

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The national executive council of the Association of Nigerian Authors took the attendees on a tour of the village located in Mpape, on the outskirts of the Federal Capital Territory.

The visit was to allow other members of the association see the village for the first time as well as dispel all doubts as to the existence of the village.

The ANA President, Denja Abdullahi, while addressing the gathering said, "This is our land. It was given to us in 1981 by the late Major-Gen Mamman Vatsa. But it has a long history."

The proposed site of the Writers' Village has had a long history of succession disputes with land grabbers. The ANA finally won a court case against Home Securities Limited, it's major accuser.

However, the court instructed ANA to the company 10 million Naira in damages or lose the property in contention.

ANA was unable to raise the money and Col. Kayode Shaw (rtd), chairman of Karlie Mobs Ventures Limited, intervened and paid.

Abdullahi described Shaw's action as a rescue mission. He also told the gathering that ANA is in agreement with his company. The agreement gives Karlie Mobs authorisation to sell some portions of the land and develop the rest of the village with the proceeds.

However, in spite of all these efforts, ANA has not gotten the Certificate of Occupancy of the land. Shaw however gave the assurance that the document would be retrieved by the end of this year.