PM STANDS FIRM
Holness insists Gov’t will not cede ground to gangsters; defends demolition
Published:Wednesday | October 12, 2022 | 12:13 AMEdmond Campbell/Senior Parliamentary Reporter
Prime Minister Andrew Holness has defended the action of the Government to demolish 10 incomplete structures on reserved lands adjacent to the Clifton community in the Greater Bernard Lodge Development Area in St Catherine, charging that if left untouched, it would have led to a massive land grab engineered by a criminal organisation.
And in the wake of fears expressed by workers attached to the Sugar Company of Jamaica Holdings (SCJH) to act against persons who have started to occupy the land illegally, the prime minister indicated that increased security has been placed around officials at the state-owned company.
“We continue to give that coverage and blanket just in case anybody wants to think any way and we are constantly monitoring that gang and that area,” Holness said in a statement to Parliament on Tuesday.
He was addressing the controversial demolition exercise that triggered a backlash from some quarters, including Opposition leader Mark Golding, who declared that the People’s National Party would help persons affected by last Thursday’s destruction of the unfinished buildings.
But a strident prime minister told his parliamentary colleagues that plots from the two-and-a-half acres of land designated a “reserved area”, which acted as a buffer between the community of Clifton and the agricultural lands at Bernard Lodge, were allegedly being sold by persons aligned to the Spanish Town-based Clansman gang.
He said that St Catherine Southern Member of Parliament Fitz Jackson had told him that construction of houses had started on the lands.
Following the illegal occupation of the designated reserved lands, Holness said that officers from SCJH told him that they were afraid to act as there were reports of organised criminal activities in the area and a possible connection to the Clansman gang.
He said that on July 20, 2020, the agency wrote to him, explaining that the matter was out of control and could not be dealt with at the local level.
AFRAID TO ACT
The head of government said he then brought the matter to the attention of the National Security Council.
“Can you imagine our State being afraid to act in the face of a gang that I had to bring the matter to the National Security Council?”
Holness lamented what he said was a new dimension of a criminal gang purportedly selling government property for which public officers were afraid to act.
“There must be no ambivalence, no double-speak; it is wrong and if only one man will stand up and say it is wrong, I will be that one man,” Holness declared.
Signalling that the fears of the agency’s workers should not be taken lightly, the prime minister said that a public official was murdered by members of that gang.
And using Google Maps images, the prime minister showed that the occupation of the reserved lands started in 2020 and quickly accelerated during the pandemic. The map showed that in 2019, no structure was built on the reserved land.
Pointing to the diagram, Holness said “there was no activity in the reserved area in 2019, so no one can claim any adverse possession”.
Further, he said the reserved area was put in place to protect the human rights of the Clifton citizens.
“There may be need to expand homes. There may be need to put in water, electricity, sewerage and that may cause homes that are existing within the (Clifton) community – those homes may have to be demolished and the residents relocated elsewhere. You can’t relocate them further from their community and therefore a reserved area was created in the regularisation plan,” he told the House.
Meanwhile, Holness on Tuesday suggested that there were persons connected to both the Jamaica Labour Party and the People’s National Party who were involved in the illegal sale and occupation of lands.
The prime minister divulged that he has received reports that land scam was also taking place at Mount Edgecome in St Ann; Retirement and Providence in St James; and Naseberry Grove in St Catherine.
Holness said that the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA) and the Jamaica Constabulary Force have been asked to conduct investigations into the illegal sale and occupation of lands.
The prime minister urged members of the public to report the illegal land sales to MOCA, the Counter Terrorism and Organised Crime Investigations Branch as well as government agencies.