By Mabinty M. Kamara
Some residents of Aku Town in the Goderich community have cried foul over the decision of Dr. Denis Sandy, Minister of Lands and Country Planning, to hand over some 223 acres of land to the Milton Margai College of Education and Technology (MMCET) as its legal property.
The land in question, according to some of the affected property owners, was part of a larger piece of land owned by the community people until the late former Prime Minister Sir Milton Margai bought seven acres out of it for the construction of the college, with an agreement that every year the college should award three scholarships to children from within the community. The community people say the promises in that agreement were not fulfilled.
The affected land owners convened a press conference on Saturday 11th June to publicly challenge the decision. Some of them said they have had their properties dating back to the 1960s.
Mr. Victor Brandon, one of them, told Politico that he had two lands in the acclaimed area on Brandon Lane, one of which he acquired in 1961 and the other in 1984.
He noted that even the land the NPRC government gave to the National Football team for winning the Zone Two competitions in 1995 have all been included in the acclaimed 223 acres of land that had been given to the college.
“The good thing is that, the college is not in session. Had college been in session when Sandy made that statement on June 23rd, it would have caused mayhem in the community,” he said.
Miatta Sawei, 65, another affected resident, told Politico that she has been residing in the community for 27 years, since her daughter bought the piece of land and built a dwelling house for her to rest.
“But since I have been here, any change in the college (MMCET) administration will affect us. They have been coming here to take measurements. The last time I had to resist them measuring my land because my daughter bought it for me and I have the documents to the effect. Sometimes they bring the students here to vandalize our properties, and I want the government to know that we are citizens and it is our right to own houses in our country," she said.
According to Madam Sawei, it was the Ministry of Lands that authenticated their documents.
“We have everything necessary from land acquisition to construction,” she said.
Ernest Cole, another aggrieved land owner, said he owns a massive resort under construction in the community. He alleged that MMCET has teamed up with the Ministry of Land to take away their properties.
“First and foremost, we are not land grabbers, as MMCET and Dr. Denis Sandy is projecting to the masses of Sierra Leone. If anything, they are the land grabbers, who are trying to take what does not legally belong to them. They are unlawfully using and abusing the positions of their offices to take our lands and properties from us in an instituted democratic government and state like Sierra Leone and rendering us homeless,” he said.
Mr Cole recalled that in 2010, it was the same Dr Sandy as Minister of Lands in the then APC administration, who hosted the aggrieved land owners in a meeting in his office where he confirmed that the college barely owned seven acres of the land. Cole said it was funny that as Minister in the same office under an SLPP administration, Dr Sandy is claiming 223 acres for the college.
“So what we want to know is when did the college acquire the remaining 216 acres and from whom did they acquire it? All of us here have legal conveyances. That is why we called you to get our side of the story,” he told journalists, adding: “The abuse has been too much. They will come and beat up people, vandalize their properties and go to the media to put up a false story.”
Professor Alfred Jarrett, another affected resident, said he has been in the community for over 40 years and that he has witnessed shifting policies from one administration to another with regards to the land issue.
“Year after year, every change in administration has affected us; they will come to grab our lands and they do not come quietly but with violence,” he said, adding: “They will beat us, destroy properties and restrict us from moving around.”
Prof. Jarrett went on: “The APC did the same thing. This government did the same thing. But what makes this very serious is that before, they used to tell us that their boundary stops at ocean view, the other time they said it’s where the Changes fence stops.”
“The same man that has been fighting Margai is now fighting with Margai,” he said.
A spokesperson for MMCET denied all allegations of land grabbing against the institution. Elezabeth Sesay, Public Relations Officer of the college, told Politico that they were open for discussion with the affected residents, stressing however that the allegations by them that only seven acres of land was sold to the college was a “blatant” lie.
“When they handed over the land to us, we even called them to be present. We told them to engage with the administration two weeks after college reopened. Even the Minister of Lands noted that he wouldn’t mind being an intermediary between them (affected property owners) and the college,” Sesay said in a telephone interview.
She explained further that they submitted the gazetted papers to the Ministry, which resurveyed the land and came up with the final decision.
According to Sesay’s account, the whole piece of land covers a wide area that include part of where the Emergency Hospital is as well as the real estate, Regemanuel Housing Complex.
“We didn’t just wake up to claim 223 acres, it is the Ministry that said it after the survey,” said Sesay.
She also dismissed allegations that the college’s students had been vandalizing the properties of the aggrieved land owners, noting that such has never happened in about 8 years.
“In fact we have been on the losing end because some of them have been taking the college to court and we have been spending millions on hiring lawyers and going to court. So never have students been vandalizing them. If that happens it’s about 20 to 25 years back, because I heard stories about that,” she said.
The Ministry of Lands did not get back to Politico for comment on the issue.
Copyright © 2020 Politico Online
