Stop using squatters for political mileage

-AG tells Opposition-

Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Hon. Mohabir Anil Nandlall has called on the Opposition to stop using the plight of the Success squatters for political mileage.

The Attorney General said Tuesday that the Opposition has been playing “politics with this issue.”

“Squatting is illegal. It is wrong, and politicians who care about people have to stop using people as political pawns and using their plight as a political platform and that is what is taking place at Success,” he said on his weekly “Issues in the news” Facebook programme.

The Government, through the National Industrial and Commercial Investment Limited (NICIL), has been trying to remove families who are illegally occupying the land.

The Attorney General said the Government wants to do what is in the best interest of those residents and the wider country.

“Squatting stymies development, creates housing areas without proper planning, leads to sickness and violence,” the AG said.

While reiterating that “everything has to have a process,” the Attorney General said there are more than 60,000 applications backlogged in the system.

He said the administration has an accelerated housing programme that will cater for everyone; however, it takes time.

Last Friday, His Excellency Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali pleaded with residents of the Success squatting area to utilise the legal path to land ownership.

“It is not that we want you to be dislodged in the area. We want you to own your home too, that is why we sent the Housing teams so many times to see you, but there is a right way in doing things and the wrong way. In Guyana, we have to get accustomed to doing things the right way,” President Ali said at the “Dream Realised” housing initiative at the Guyana National Stadium.

The President proffered that there would be no value if taxpayer funds were to be invested in squatting settlements.

Earlier this week, the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) prepared the Graham’s Hall Primary School as a shelter for squatters who were displaced from the flooding of the area.