Morian demanded NICIL lands gratis

FORMER Region Ten Chairman Mr. Renis Morian demanded land from the National
Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) without payment and when that failed
pushed to get its acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mr. Colvin Heath-London fired.
Speaking to www.aroundtheregions.com under conditions of anonymity, well-placed sources
with knowledge of ongoing investigations into controversial sale of prime real estate under the
David Granger A Partnership For National Unity, Alliance For Change (APHU+ AFC) coalition
said Morian used his party affiliation to force Heath-London to do his bidding.
“The Regional Chairman got all worked up and boasted about his relationship with the President
and how he was going to get the President to fire Heath-London under the pretext that he was not
performing his duties properly, one of the sources recalled.
The source said “many persons were surprised when the President did receive a letter
purportedly written by several residents demanding that Colvin Heath-London be removed from
NICIL. The sad thing about it is that the allegations contained in the letter were false and pointed
to the workings of the Regional Chairman as no evidence was found from these allegations,” the
source said.
Apparently Morian’s applications for NICIL lands in Upper Demerara/Berbice (Region Ten)
several years before were denied and he scented his opportunity when the APNU+AFC
triumphed at the 2015 polls. Heath-London resisted Morian’s demands but agreed to sell
property below market value.
Heath-London’s refusal infuriated Morian who imagined that Linden’s Mayor, Ms. Waneka
Arrindell and APNU+AFC Member of Parliament, (MP) Mr. Jermain Figueira, were close to the
acting NICIL CEO, would benefit from his largesse.

Former Finance Minister, Mr. Winston Jordan was also recruited and pressured to get rid of
Heath-London to satisfy Morian’s thirst for vengeance.
“It was clear that Winston Jordan personally felt that Heath-London was performing
excellently,” and didn’t fire him, the source noted.
Then Junior Minister of Agriculture, Mrs. Valerie Patterson-Yearwood stood by Heath-London
urging him to ignore Morian’s “antics”.
Heath-London told www.aroundtheregions.com that several APNU+AFC government officials
exerted enormous pressure on him to make unethical and unprofessional decisions to satisfy their
personal agendas and when those failed, turned to former President Mr. David Granger
dismissed.
As a matter of fact, Granger who was sucked in by false information fed him by several of them,
including former Agriculture Minister, Mr. Noel Holder, actually fired him on three separate
occasions, but fate was on his side.
“There were many accusations made against me by the then President who had personally told
me at a cabinet meeting that I was a PPP sympathiser, and he had a big problem with that. He
allowed Holder to misguided him and if a check was made with former government ministers
many would tell you that my tenure at NICIL was deliberately made difficult by Noel Holder and
aided by David Granger,” Heath-London recalled.
Granger and several government officials were outraged when Heath-London secured the
services of Mr. Devindra Kissoon as NICIL’s legal counsel, citing him as a Peoples Progressive
Party (PPP) supporter. For him, one’s expertise and not one’s political beliefs always gets his
nod.
He was bewildered when the Irfaan Ali administration gave him the pink slip.
“My record speaks for itself as everything that I did I did according to the books. Many persons
are accusing me of all kinds of things and it hurts severely because I am being treated as a thief
when in all my dealings, I did things professionally and ethically. I was never interested in

politics and certainly isn’t interested right now as I did my work professionally and will continue
being a professional,” Heath-London said.

On the Morian issue Heath-London explained that “the Regional Chairman had approached me
with the intention of securing the land free. Morian didn’t want to pay the prevailing rate. He
thought that he could have gotten it free. I don’t deal with these things specifically, whatever was
the government evaluation price that is what he was asked to pay.”