‘You are to break the fence’ – AG to residents in standoff with Lincoln Lewis

Trade Unionist Lincoln Lewis who lays claim to most of the village of Kingelly

Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, this afternoon urged residents in Kingelly, West Coast Berbice, to break what fence and other structures trade unionist Lincoln Lewis is laying claim to in that village. In fact, Nandlall said Lewis is claiming the entire village, which he says belongs to his ancestors.

Last week, Lewis in a newspaper letter stated that the land issue was being made a political one.

AG and Legal Affairs  Minister Nandlall holds up legal documents presented to him by a aged resident

Today in a meeting with the residents of the village, Nandlall told the residents that they must protect their property as provided for in law.

Earlier this week, Lewis was released on self-bail after claims of abusive language and assault were brought against him by a number of residents in the West Berbice community.

“Listen wuh meh ah tell yuh, if Lincoln Lewis interferes with your operation…your occupation, break down whatever physical structure he has,” Nandlall told residents this afternoon.

Last week Saturday, Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha and a team from the ministry visited the very community along with others, during several roadside meetings.

The land dispute between the villagers and Lewis dates back to a number of years, and Nandlall had represented the villagers in a legal battle which saw twenty of them receiving land titles for several plots of land in the village which Lewis has been laying claim to.

“It is your land, you have to behave like you own it”, “You are to break the fence” Nandlall told the residents, who said that Lewis and his agents have erected a fence along a plot of the land which they have been occupying for (in some cases) more than eighty years.

Nandlall reminded the residents that the law provides for anyone to apply for prescriptive rights to lands which they have occupied or squatted on for twelve consecutive years uninterrupted.

The Legal Affairs Minister is adamant that the lands, based on initial evidence, are state lands, and will be given to the residents of the community through a process that is yet to be decided on by cabinet.