According to 36–year-old Vanessa Gaskin, of Lot 25 R Ruby in Region Three, two of her children – her 13 year old son and his 2 year old brother – were at home on March 24 when several men who claimed that they had been sent by the housing authorities in the area, descended on her home with several documents bearing the heading of the Region Three administration.
Attempts by this newspaper to obtain a comment from officials at the Region Three administration were in vain, while relevant officials at the housing ministry at Brickdam could not be reached on the issue.
According to Gaskin, the men told her children that they were sent to “break down” her home and according to her they proceeded to dismantle the place she had called home since her birth. She said she and her husband were not at home at the time and according to her, her 13 year old son questioned the men about their presence there and during an argument, he was “chopped” on his right hand close to the wrist as his brother looked on. She said her son identified the man who wounded him as a resident from the area who works with the regional administration.
According to Gaskin during the ordeal her sons went into the house and told the men that their parents were not at home and as the children stood in the house, the men nailed up the entrances to her home preventing them from leaving the building. She said her children were only able to exit the house after she and her husband returned home that afternoon.
The woman stated that she immediately made a report to the Parkia Police Station as regards her son’s injury but received no satisfaction as ranks there remained uncooperative.
She said she was given a medical to take to the Leonora Cottage Hospital and persons there told her that the police at Leonora were going to uplift same. She said several weeks passed, and no one contacted the family and she revisited the Parika Police station on several occasions but got no satisfaction. According to her, an officer at the police station, “even recommend that the person who injure my son get charge.”
According to the woman, she believes the issue is being fuelled by persons in the area who she stated may have an interest in the property. She said several days after the initial incident, she was told that a “big one in the government” had given permission to a resident nearby to occupy the land in question. She said a resident collected building materials which were destroyed during the March 24 ordeal and placed same under his home.
Gaskin said she and her husband subsequently travelled to the Vreed-en-Hoop office of the Housing Ministry and were told by officials there they had no knowledge of the issue. She said persons there made several calls to the Housing Ministry on Brickdam and she was told to speak to a ‘Mr Charles’ at the Georgetown location.
According to Gaskin’s father, Godfrey Alexander, he travelled with his pregnant daughter to the Housing Ministry and they were told by ‘Mr Charles’ that he had no knowledge of the matter but promised to investigate.
He said the man recorded numbers and other contact information from the family but to date no one from the agency has contacted the family on the issue.
Alexander stated that he once lived on the plot of land in question, which he stated was allocated to him by the Lands and Surveys section of the Ministry of Agriculture in the late 1970s. He said he had kept his documents, which he displayed to this newspaper, in a safe place and as such he was at wits ends as regards the current situation.
The man noted that a resident in the community had been “tormenting” the family for several weeks now and this person maintained that he had ownership of the property which was “handed to him” by a “lady in the government.” He said he was not going to leave the situation as it was, since he had made provision for his children early in his life. He said he gave the land to his daughter to occupy since she needed to make a living on her own.
The family is pleading with the authorities to address the issue since they are having sleepless nights as residents in the community have made their lives “a living nightmare” over the past several weeks.
