Trade unionist Lincoln Lewis and several Kingelly, West Coast Berbice villagers were yesterday charged with assault causing actual bodily harm and abusive language.
Lewis, 70, of Paradise Village, East Coast Demerara, appeared before the Fort Wellington Magistrate’s Court yesterday on a charge of assault causing actual bodily harm and abusive language committed on Radesh Lall, a minibus driver, of Kingelly Village.
Lall was also charged with assault causing actual bodily harm and abusive language committed on Lewis.
Both men pleaded not guilty to the charges when they appeared before Magistrate Rabindranauth Singh.
Magistrate Singh placed both men on self-bail and they are due to appear at the Weldaad Magistrate’s Court on September 10th for their next hearing.Meanwhile, charges were also read against three other men, Hebert Glasgow, 39, Jeol Glasgow, 22, and Hubert Glasgow, 23, all labourers of Kingelly Village, who are accused of using abusive language towards Lewis.
They, however, did not appear in court, which led the magistrate to issue summons for them to appear on September 10th as well. The charges stem from a confrontation that occurred on August 13 at Kingelly. Lewis and some residents have been locked in a dispute over land which he has said was owned by his great-great-grandfather, Cudjoe McPherson and for which he has produced a transport.
Almost three years ago, Lewis appeared before the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into African ancestral land matters and produced a transport, which he said was dated 1850, and asked for assistance in reclaiming the remaining unoccupied land. “…That my great-great-great grandfather Kojo did not leave a will for his descendants is a matter of perspective in the era that he lived; that the absence of such document may have caused others not of his lineage to think that it is acceptable to claim land that they did not purchase nor could not have inherited, our submission to this commission is to have this injustice corrected,” Lewis has told the commission.
Lewis’ case was made on behalf of the heirs to the estate. He related that that their hope is that they be able to occupy the remaining lands without conflict.
