Four months after the Beterverwagting/Triumph Neighborhood Democratic Council (NDC) granted businessman Afraz Mohamed permission to build and operate a vendors’ arcade on Company Path, Triumph, the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GL&SC) has approached the High Court to have developer expelled from what it claims is state land.
The NDC is now seeking to stave off possible liability by joining the case in a challenge to GL&SC’s claims.
On April 20, Justice Damone Young granted an interim injunction restraining Mohamed from using “the state land on Company Path between Plantations Triumph and Mon Repos.”
The injunction, which expires on May 4, was granted ahead of a hearing challenging Mohamed’s occupation of the space.
However, while GL&SC is contending that the area is state property, the BV/Triumph NDC has claimed that the land belongs to that Local Authority Area.
Speaking with Stabroek News on Friday, NDC Chair Jimmaul Bagot and head of the Council Works Committee Neville Cumberbatch indicated that they were told by GL&SC in 2019 that the area belongs to the council.
“We received correspondence signed by Manager of Surveys, R. Dunesbury, which concluded that the land is controlled by BV/Triumph. It made no mention that this was state land or that it was owned by anyone other than the BV/Triumph NDC,” Bagot stressed.
They contend that on the basis of this assurance from the GL&SC they entered into a 20-year lease agreement with Mohamed and are now gobsmacked at the legal challenge. Efforts to reach Mohamed were unsuccessful as his mobile number was switched off.
The NDC has explained that when the Council took office in 2018, a decision was made to erect a market at Company Path between Mon Repos and Triumph. A sign was erected to let persons know a market would be built and requests were made for proposals for public/private partnerships.
Following an objection from the Mon Repos/La Reconnaissance NDC, which claimed ownership of the property, the NDC approached Lands and Surveys and paid a $100,000 fee to conduct an investigation into the ownership of the property.
“Once Lands and Surveys said BV/Triumph owned the property, we published in “conspicuous areas” within the NDC notices asking for proposals. After shortlisting three proposals Council unanimously approved Mr Mohamed and entered into a lease,” Bagot explained.
The lease, signed on December 31, 2019, grants Mohamed and his business AM Trading Enterprises permission to sublet and mortgage the property as well as construct a building to be used for industrial/business purposes.
The NDC receives yearly a sum of $504,000 and $42,000 upon signing as well as the right to approve any sub-leasing agreement.
The Council is now concerned that should GL&SC win its challenge to Mohamed’s occupation, the businessman might then seek legal recourse against BV/Triumph.
“Our next step is to seek the advice of our lawyers and probably ask to be a part of the current case because in the long run if the case goes in Lands and Survey’s favour, the Council will face legal action from the leasee in terms of damages. We right now will seek our lawyers’ advice about being added to the case,” Bagot shared.
The NDC intends to base the bulk of its argument on the contents of a September, 2019 letter from Dunesbury that states that according to the Company Path Register “the area was under the control of the Triumph Sugar Estates co, however the BV/Triumph N.D.C is now in control of the area.”
Stabroek News reached out to Dunesbury, who declined to provide a detailed comment on the situation.
“All I will say is that the lands are state lands,” he repeatedly stressed. Asked to explain the meaning of control as used in the letter to the NDC, he indicated that control related to administrative services.
“Control is not ownership. Control, in this case, would refer to the provision of services — such as cleaning of drains and disposal of garbage, all those services which the NDC provides — but the land is state land,” he maintained.
The same letter indicates that the property exists between the boundaries of Triumph and Mon Repos.
It explains that measuring from the centerline of Agriculture Road [western boundary of Mon Repos] shows that 90ft exist between Agriculture road and the eastern property boundary in Plantation Triumph.
According to Bagot, the question asked of GL&SC in 2019 was “who owned the land.” He shared the June, 2019 correspondence which requested that the agency carry out a site investigation/survey to resolve a dispute between BV/Triumph and the Mon Repos/La Reconnaissance NDC resulting from “ownership claims between the two N.D.Cs.”
“Their response to our question was that BV/Triumph controlled the area. The letter we received from them is very clear,” Cumberbatch indicated, adding that they were not informed that an issue existed until they received a notice of survey from GL&SC dated April 6. Subsequently the leasee informed the council that he had been served with an injunction.
