Bozine Town representative Leslie Miller yesterday promised to raise “eternal hell” and stand by his constituents in the land dispute between residents and a local development company.
On Monday The Tribune reported that the Harrold Road Land development Company (LANDCO), through the law firm Lockhart, Munroe and Co., on the weekend served the people of Bozine Town, Knowles Drive and Harrold Road with a letter stating that it owns title to all property off Harrold Road in the western district of New Providence.
The development company declared that according to Action No.302/1962 on January 23, 2004, the Supreme Court granted certificate of title of the property to LANDCO.
The letter further invited residents, who currently occupy the area in question, to purchase the property they now occupy. they were asked to contact the chambers of Lockhart and Munroe “within 14 days from the date” of the letter if they wished to buy the land.
In an impromptu meeting Sunday with members of the press, area MP Leslie Miller and former MP Dion Foulkes, residents said they had no intention of repurchasing land that has been in their families for decades.
Accompanying members of the media on a tour of the area yesterday morning, Mr. Miller described the action of LANDCO as “unfair to the Bozine Town people”.
Mr. Miller alleged that the system had been manipulated “with this Quieting of Titles Act”.
The Bozine Town MP said that the Act, which allows people to petition the courts for Certificates of Title, should be outlawed and banned in the Bahamas.
What happens is that somebody “puts an ad in the newspaper that says ‘we’re quieting’ and they get one of their henchmen to plant a coconut tree on the land and let it sit for about 12 or 15 years and then they go and acquire the poeple’s land,” the minister alleged.
He said that this is especially unfair to people who do not read the daily newspapers and miss the advertisments, not realising that the land their homes sit on is in jeopardy.
“There should be no such thing as quieting”,” he said.
“If and when anyone is going to be bold enough to evict those peple off the land there will be eternal hell and I will be there with them. tehy can manipulate the court system but they are not going to manipulate people’s lives,” he said.
Karin Herig, The Tribune
