November 16, 2020 (232News)
FREETOWN – There have been several negative reports about land in the country and how the Minister of Lands is converting private properties into state land.
The current Minister of Land, Dr Dennis Sandy has even brought the military into land controversies, defying the court order.
A case in point is a 58 acres land lying and situated between No 2 and Tokeh Communities in western rural district in the capital Freetown.
It is believed that the said land is owned by five families for which a power of Attorney is given to one Kadie Davies, who happened to be the deposed Member of Parliament for that Constituency.
According to one of the family heads, their documents have been verified by the current Minister of Lands and that month ago they were surprised to see some military men at the said land.
That they have been beating their people at the said land and at the same time, one of the popular land grabbers, Pastor Chamber has his presence at the said land every other day.
The land in question is swarmed with the presence of military personal for the army has denied any knowledge of their personnel in the land but investigation proved that the military men on the land are presidential bodyguards.
That the Head of Presidential Guard at State House Col Kposowa confirmed that the men at the said land are his men and that he requested for land on behalf of the Presidential Guards at State House and that the Minister of Lands, Denis Sandy gave them that parcel of land as state land.
All of this have been denied by the Minister of Lands but the recent United States of America Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Scorecards exposed that access to land in Sierra Leone is very difficult
In Land Rights and Access, Sierra Leone has an abysmal score of 24%.
