By Court reporter

Copyright thesouthernreporter

Sheriff officers, assisted by local police turned up to enforce a decree for the “immediate extraction” of the occupiers from the woods owned by a private landowner. But the group took down their tents and shifted their belongings over a fence and onto what is believed to be land within the same woods but owned by Scottish Borders Council. The council will now have to take legal action themselves to evict the group from the woods beside Oxnam Road Industrial Estate in Jedburgh. The could push for another eviction order which would only pass the problem onto someone else or apply to the court for an Anti-Social Behaviour Order to be imposed banning them from the Borders. The move angered local councillor and deputy leader of Scottish Borders Council Scott Hamilton who had hoped the group would have moved on. He said: ”This is obviously a provocative act by the group who clearly have no regard for private property. “I have made clear that we will continue to enforce the law wherever necessary and we stand ready to do that until the situation is resolved.” The Kingdom of Kumbala is made up of leader Kofi Offeh, 36, the self-proclaimed King Atehene, his wife Jean Gasho, 43, who calls herself Queen Nandi, and “handmaiden” Kaura Taylor, who calls herself Asnat. The three members of the self-proclaimed “kingdom” have said they are reclaiming land that was stolen from their ancestors 400 years ago. A decree for evicting the group was issued at Jedburgh Sheriff Court on Friday with the sheriff stating it would come into effect immediately. But due to the weekend and local holiday, it was not enforced until Tuesday morning. The events started shortly before 8am when five sheriff officers assisted by several police officers arrived in the industrial estate. They made the short walk into the woods and told the group, who had been sleeping in their tents, they were being evicted from the land owned by retired butcher and property developer David Palmer. For the next 90 minutes the group took down their tents and moved their possessions a distance of around 30 yards onto land which is thought to be owned by the council. During that period the ‘handmaiden’ emerged down the path with a black plastic bag containing human waste and left it at a rubbish bin before returning to the camp. A council refuse lorry arrived shortly afterwards to collect the bag. The sheriff officers and police left at around 9.30am and when the media visited the camp, the area previously occupied by the group had been cleared with the exception of the remains of a camp fire. The group were sat on chairs on the other side of a wire fence – most of which had been flattened – where they sang tribal songs and even a celebratory dance. Queen Nandi said: ”We are immovable.” The King also remained defiant saying: ”We want to sleep here tonight. But we will go where our creator tells us.” The group previously lived in Stockton-on-Tees and have claimed they have been subjected to abuse by some locals although many people have turned up giving them “gifts” and food. Court costs were awarded against the group in favour of the landowner to pay for the sheriff officers but the King said: ” We have no money. We do not use any currency, they can take it from our donations. “We are not scared of jail.” However, the group are said to be receiving a sizeable income from the advertising revenue from the Tik Tok videos they are constantly posting with 61,000 followers and a cash app inviting donations.