By Crispina Cummings
Sierra Leone's Minister of Lands, Musa Tarawallie has vowed to parliament that he is out to wage war against squatters, calling them “lawless land grabbers and encroachers” of especially state lands in the Western Area.
He was before the House Committee on Lands to explain how he hoped to deal with the perennial problems associated with land acquisition and distribution. He admitted to poor record keeping, illegal transactions and lawlessness in land issues in the ministry.
“We are ready to deal with lawlessness and are determined to enforce the rule of law which is why we are working on a new database system– the biometric registration of land titles – where an automated detail of land transactions will be stored in order to avoid duplication of owners”, hevowed.
When asked how he wished to tackle those problems of people havingvalid documents to show ownership of a plot of land but such property has been taken away from them, the minister said that most times people had done the wrong thing and found ways to justify their holding on suchproperty.
Tarawallie said: “99% of these documents are not legitimate. Most are built up stories in the form of documents. How can you secure an expensive piece of land and put up those kinds of structures as squatters?” he asked, rhetorically.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Committee, Patrick Kargbo, MP, told the minister that they were more interested in how far the ministry had gone to deliver on some of the policies he promised after months in office.
The minister confessed to poor records-keeping system which he said was not good for an effective lands ministry. He claimed that one director in the ministry would sign a site plan and after two years the same plan would be brought in to be signed without another director knowing because there were no record systems.
“That is why procedures are in place for the use of the biometric system. The ministry is not going to take it lightly with the rich class that connives with community people to grab state lands” he assured.
Asked if building inspectors were still working with the unit of work permit, given the high cases of unplanned buildings, the minister said the inspectors were doing their work but that people continued to put up structures much to their own disadvantage. He promised that when the ministry would have commenced its planning of communities, they would remove all illegal structures on state lands.
© Politico 23/05/13
