BRIEFING: Kong (third right) speaking to the villagers outside the Tawau High Court.

TAWAU: Federal Land Development Board (Felda) failed in its bid to evict villagers of Tanjung Labian, Tungku, Lahad Datu at the Tawau High Court yesterday when Sabah and Sarawak High Court Judicial Commissioner Datuk Douglas Primus dismissed Felda's application and ordered it to file a writ of summons within 30 days to determine the issue and dispute by a full trial.

Felda had applied to the High Court to evict the villagers from 150 acres and 650 acres at Felda Sahabat 19 and 22 respectively, on basis that Felda had been given land title by the state government in 2010.

Felda claimed that it entered the areas in 1980 and had developed the land into an oil palm plantation.

The thirteen villages consisting of about 10,000 villagers were represented by counsel Datuk Kong Hong Ming and in their affidavit claimed that their forefathers had been in the land since the colonial time and have been in possession of the ancestral land for at least four generations.

And by virtue of Native Customary Rights (NCR) they are entitled to NCR ownership in their ancestral land.

They alleged that Felda is in fact trespassing on to their ancestral land since 1980 until now.

They counter claim against Felda seeking declaration that they are the legal beneficial owners of the land pursuant to NCR and also their earlier Land Application (LA) submitted in 1970 and claimed damages from Felda.

Felda was represented by a counsel from Johari & Zelika.