Minister of Housing Harry Narine Nawbatt says he and a few of his officers were 
threatened yesterday after workers demolished a roof as a warning to the owner of a property that she was illegally occupying land in the Turkeyen Police Station compound.
Reports are that the woman first threatened the workers who had turned up just after 6 am to carry out the works and she subsequently went to the Minister’s Brickdam office where more threats were issued.
Stabroek News could not contact the woman for a comment yesterday.
Both the police and the Ministry of Home Affairs are aware of the situation but it is unclear if any effort is being made to arrest the woman.
The woman is among five persons who had built structures on a piece of government reserve on which the police station was later built.
The woman’s structure was not completely destroyed yesterday as it was half concrete and it was seen as a property that could be bought by the police.
Several requests were made for the woman to go into the ministry to discuss compensation for the building but she has refused to do so.
Minister Nawbatt during an emergency press conference yesterday said that a man who accompanied the woman to his ministry several hours after the demolition exercise threatened that he (Nawbatt) would go missing.
The minister said that the woman, whose name he said was Bibi Shafia, has refused to cooperate with ministry officials.
Explaining what led to the situation, Nawbatt said that Shafia and four persons had been occupying a piece of government reserve in Sophia (D Field) for several years.
He said several notices were served to them, including Shafia, who had been on the land since 1999, to remove. The police station was eventually built on a piece of the land and they were given notices to remove since it was space that the station needs to occupy. One person moved last year, another last month and another house owner has requested until the 15th of this month, he said. The fourth house which belonged to a man who is living overseas was completely demolished yesterday.
He explained that the owner of that property resides outside of Guyana and this is against the ministry’s policy in relation to house lots. He said that the man was told that he would have to re-migrate but that did not happen so the structure was broken down. He said that they had also indicated to the man that he would have been allocated a house lot once he returned to live in Guyana.
Commenting on Shafia’s issue, the minister said that during a one-year period three letters had been sent to the woman, the latest stating that she had until April 1 to remove and failure to do this would result in the structure being demolished.
“We are willing to negotiate and agree to relocate her”, he said.
The minister said that a price for the property was discussed with her but she “bluntly refused”. He said yesterday morning, the woman issued threats in the present of ranks who had accompanied the workers.
The minister then highlighted allegations on a TV station that the woman lost money and jewellery during the exercise. Nawbatt said that the workers were never in the house and dismissed the woman’s allegations as absolutely untrue.
He said all they did was take off the roof and the beams so as to get her to come into the ministry. He said it makes no sense to break down the structure when it could be useful.
He noted that no serious action was taken by the ministry until the construction of the police station and stressed that all the persons living on the land knew that it was government reserve.
Meanwhile a visit to the location by this newspaper yesterday revealed that, there was a newly built concrete structure attached to the side of the building and a septic tank. The bottom flat is concrete while the top is wood.
The woman was nowhere around. (Zoisa Fraser)
