PM warns that police will pursue persons illegally selling land Loop Jamaica

Black Immigrant Daily News

Prime Minister Andrew Holness has warned that the security forces will be going after persons who he said have engaged in the illicit sale of both Government and privately-owned lands “right across the country”.

The prime minister issued the warning in the House of Representatives on Tuesday while outlining the sequence of events that led to the demolition of 10 unfinished structures near the community of Clifton in the Greater Bernard Lodge development area in St Catherine last Thursday.

He told the House that the Spanish Town-based Clansman gang had captured and illegally sold the land to the persons who were in the process of building when the demolition was done.

Holness said the two-and-half acre property was reserved by SCJ Holdings Limited to facilitate infrastructure and other amenities for the adjoining Clifton community that is being regularised.

“We must clearly establish that no criminal organisation, no scammer, no don, no politician can tell anyone to go and occupy land that they do not legally own, whether it is private land or Government land,” Holness declared.

He then pointed to an alarming trend.

“Right across Jamaica we’ve been receiving reports of land scams,” he said while noting that such information has emerged out of Mount Edgecombe in St Ann, Naseberry Grove and Thetford in St Catherine, as well as Retirement and Providence in St James.

“These are areas which we have reports on, and we have tasked MOCA (Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency) and the JCF (Jamaica Constabulary Force) to investigate these scams and bring to book all those persons,” Holness said.

He stated that some of the scammers are known and politically-connected on both sides of the political divide. He warned that regardless of their political connections, the law will be applied to the perpetrators.

“We have asked MOCA and the JCF to do a comprehensive investigation on this matter, and I’m asking members of the public to contact MOCA or C-TOC (Counter Terrorism & Organised Crime Investigations Branch) directly,” said the prime minister.

Additionally, the public is being asked to bring such matters to the Ministry of Housing or the National Land Agency.

Holness said he is adamant that criminal organisations will not be allowed to establish communities and to benefit from doing so while perpetuating a breakdown of the state.

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