By Bampia James Bundu
General manager of MKDS Jahs building and construction company, Alhaji Samura, has laid claim to the controversial Grassfield Power Magazine community land much to the chagrin of youth and some community elders.
He told Politico that his company had a three-year lease agreement with the government for the development and maintenance of the said land.
“We are using the land to construct a massive warehouse to do most of our work”, he said, adding that the community people had no document to substantiate their claim to the property.
He alleged that some of the youth had gone ahead to destroy their building materials and other items but said the matter was being investigated by the police.
“As a company we are not against the community if they use the right approach. They seem to be taking the right steps now and we are ready to negotiate with them”, he said.
The disagreement led to serious outbreak of violence on Monday during which barricades were set up and the main rod into Freetown from the east was also cut off by angry protesters.
One of the community elders, Alhaji Algassimu Sesay, said that for the past 80 years government had used the said land to store explosives and other inflammables through the ministry of mines and mineral resources.
He said government had abandoned the land for many years and that half of it was given out on lease to a Lebanese man called Gemini with the rest left unattended to.
Sesay said the youth in the community therefore organised themselves and cleaned the land and used part of it as a football field.
“As a community we have been protecting this land for any development activities. The Grassfield Power Magazine community lacks basic facilities such as schools, clinics, recreational centres, water, light and a host of other basic needs,” he said, adding that the boys had decided to protest when they realised that some people claiming that government had leased the land to them were planning to construct a warehouse on the property.
“We don’t know the people. We need that land for community development. It’s the only available land left for us to use to develop our community”, he argued.
Meanwhile, parliamentarian for Constituency 101, Abdul Salaam Kanu, appealed to the youth to calm down and refrain from taking the law into their hands.
He assured that they would investigate the matter and ensure that what was due the people was not taken from them.
(C) Politico 13/02/14
