SCJ Holdings knew of illegal construction in Bernard Lodge – Jackson Loop Jamaica

Black Immigrant Daily News

Member of Parliament (MP) for St Catherine South, Fitz Jackson, has laid the blame for the illegal construction of up to 30 houses on lands adjacent to the community of Clifton in Bernard Lodge, squarely at the feet of the landowner, SCJ Holdings Limited.

The land is located in the Greater Bernard Lodge development area and was the scene of a demolition exercise last week Thursday when 10 of the unfinished buildings there were torn down.

While Prime Minister Andrew Holness has said the notorious Clansman gang which is based in Spanish Town, St Catherine fraudulently sold the lands to the persons who were building at the location, Jackson is insisting that SCJ Holdings is not without some blame.

“SCJ knew this (the illegal construction) all along. Others told them, I told them,” Jackson said Tuesday in the House of Representatives. He was responding to a lengthy statement from Holness in which the prime minister provided more details about the development, and why some of the structures were demolished last week.

According to Jackson, from the time the illegal construction of houses started in 2021, he informed the SCJ about what was happening.

Addressing the prime minister directly, Jackson said: “SCJ failed to do anything about it to the point where I alerted you that SCJ has been failing and continuing to fail to do anything where a new community is springing up and I can’t speak to it because I don’t know about it.

“That’s why I go to SCJ who owns the land, it’s their land, they are the Government authority and it’s their duty and obligation to act,” added Jackson.

He said he did not want anyone to imply that there was any complicity on his part, “because I reported it to SCJ and repeated it to them again when nothing was happening”.

While Holness stated that public officials had expressed concerns about their safety amid the gang activities in the area, Jackson sought to brush that argument aside.

“While that may be so (being fearful), SCJ has organs of the state at its disposal. It has the investigative arms and it has the law enforcement arms at its disposal. It saw the problem emerging and mushrooming and it did nothing,” he emphasised.

The Opposition MP argued that it should not be made to appear that SCJ Holdings was being a good superintendent of the lands under its jurisdiction. He said lack of action on the part of SCJ Holdings only served to compound the problem.

“When one person starts doing something (building), two more, then four more and nothing don’t happen, it is deemed to be okay because the authorities knew,” said Jackson.

He argued further that if the authorities were going to be complicit with the illegal activities, then they should make sure they put in the requisite infrastructure to support it

Jackson asserted that he did his duty as Member of Parliament, to report the matter when it emerged. He lamented that the illegal development had threatened to compromise the community of Clifton, which is now being regularised by the authorities.

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