As Minister demolishes private property… Lands Minister to be drag to court

Business

The Managing Director of DAD’s Car Centre, Abdul Salam Noah who also owns 6. 5 acres of land along Lumley Beach Road, is to make a formal complaint against the Minister of Lands, Musa Tarawally for demolishing his fence worth $65,000. At a press conference yesterday, Noah said, the land was purchased by his late father around 1950 from different individuals and since he inherited the land, he has been using the land for farming, and the products include rice, palm kernel, cucumber, garden eggs, sugar cane were sold to business people. He said they had decided to construct a modern centre where Sierra Leoneans can purchase everything including meat and refined Sierra Leonean gold. The Manager, said previously, they had confusion with Agriculture who had wanted to encroach on the land but when they presented the document to the then Minister of Lands, Allieu Pat Sowe, he was quick to resolve the matter and asked that the document be filed, as Noah was the rightful owner of the land. Noah explained that they had contracted a Chinese Company to do the construction and they had almost finished the fencing, but received a message from the Ministry on Wednesday that they should take their document for verification on Thursday which they did but unfortunately the Minister was not present but the documents were presented to the Permanent Secretary. He said “we could not go there on Friday because of the inauguration. It was on Monday around 3: pm that we received a call that the Minister had brought some youths to the site and ordered them to demolish the fence. I immediately rushed to the site and spoke to the Minister to order them to stop the demolition, as I have all the documents to the said land. But he said all wet lands are government land and they will go ahead with it.” Noah further said that “ my daughter and son were manhandled and all the materials at the site catered away by both the guys that were brought by the Minister and other youths in the area.” The Managing Director questioned “how can a Minister of Government water down his authority by trespassing on my land, giving instructions for demolition without a court order? For me it is expected in a disciplined and democratic state that no individual is above the law.” By Betty Milton

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