Presidential Advisor, Odinga Lumumba said yesterday his land deal at Akawini was approved during the PNC administration by former Agriculture Minister Patrick McKenzie and he declared that the records would show written permission was given.
Lumumba said the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission has records that would show McNeal Enterprise followed the legal and administrative process from the region to central government, and that former Minister McKenzie gave written permission in his own handwriting, and “sent (a) recommendation from the region to the commission of Lands and Surveys”.
“I am rather surprised at the assumed position of Mr. McKenzie and will forgive him because of his age”, Lumumba said in a press statement. Lumumba stated that he was given access in writing to “10,000 acres of lands in 1991 or 1992” for the Pomeroon. He had earlier refused to comment on the issue when contacted by this newspaper. Lumumba yesterday however made no reference to another large swathe of land at Manarabisi which he said had been allocated to him by the PNC and which McKenzie said in his letter he was unaware of.
McKenzie said: “I am not aware of land in the Akawini that was given to Mr Lumumba, certainly not while I was Minister of Agriculture”. He repeated this position in relation to Manarabisi. McKenzie held the post of Minister of Agriculture from October 1986 to December 1992.
Lumumba said it would be worthwhile for SN to speak to Ivor Allen and others who acquired lands during that period as the media house “might find a contradiction as it relates to the assumed statement of” McKenzie “and the recipient of 3000 acres in the Akawini area in terms of the criteria used to release such a large amount”.
Cabinet Secretary, Dr. Roger Luncheon had commented earlier in the day that the Office of the President got involved in the matter to clarify what happened with respect to the land following the reports in the press. He said the Lands and Surveys Commission and Lumumba were meeting to review the documents surrounding the transactions and would “hopefully provide convincing evidence” that Lumumba was granted the land during the pre-1992 administration.
Subsequent to this, this newspaper was informed by another government official that documents with McKenzie’s signature to prove he gave permission would be forthcoming; this was not released and Lumumba later issued his statement disputing what McKenzie said.
In a letter to Stabroek News on April 19 in response to a news item which reported on his sale of land on Mandela Avenue, Lumumba said he acquired approximately ten thousand acres of land by lease in 1992 for agricultural purposes at Manarabisi” on the right bank of the Canjie River, Berbice during the PNC administration. He said too that shortly after the PPP/C administration assumed office he was asked to relinquish some 4,000 acres to be made available to the cattle farmers in the area.
Lumumba mentioned too that he had relinquished to the state the rights to 10,000 acres of land at Akawini in the Pomeroon area “which I had acquired under the People’s National Congress (PNC) government”.
But McKenzie challenged this saying he had no knowledge of the Akawini deal and further, that the lands at Manarabisi were also not acquired by any lessee. He said the Manarabisi lands were to be leased for 25 years with the right of renewal provided adequate development works were undertaken, and according to him, “No lessee obtained the required capital for investment prior to the end of 1992 when there was a change of government”.
Lumumba had said that when he gave up the Manarabisi land he was promised an alternative plot which is how he came to be in possession of the Mandela Avenue lot. Lumumba also said in the press release that the records will show that he is one of the few persons in Guyana that released lands when the government requested. “This issue cannot be about lands it has to be about a perception that a certain race must be driven back to the realms of slavery”, he added.
Lumumba, who was once the presidential advisor on empowerment but is now the advisor on community development also called on the government to “investigate all large areas of land in all sectors as it relates to the process towards acquisition”. He further said it is important for the media to use this opportunity to call on the government to institute an independent probe of lands and buildings released by the former PNC “regime” in particular when large acres are involved. Lumumba had been closely associated with that government.
In his statement yesterday, Lumumba also attacked Stabroek News. Referring to the May 12th news item headlined `Who approved Lumumba’s land?’, Lumumba said “It is my view that Stabroek News has two objectives:
(1) to label the PPP/C Government as corrupt.
(2) use the land related matters of Mc Neal Enterprise as a slogan for their obvious anti -government crusade. The article was clearly written to pinpoint the land issue as fiction.”
He added “What is interesting here is the fact that Stabroek News took a very vague letter from someone claiming to be PNCR former Agriculture Minister Mr. Patrick Mc Kenzie who indicated that he has no recollection of that issue, and developed that letter to a major front page story.
“The gutter journalism of the Stabroek News is also clear by the fact that it published my story, on the same page with a story captioned as `Man forged agreement of sale land owned by brother’. I want any rational person to determine what is the (Editor-in-Chief’s) interest, if not to defame and slander. “
He continued: “I don’t expect Stabroek News to carry this article on their front page because of the (editor-in-chief)’s determination to spill nonsense and untruths and cover up his inability to investigate the new rich of Guyana and their inability to identify their source of funding, since they might reveal his physical shortcomings.”
In a comment on Lumumba’s statement, Stabroek News Editor-in-Chief Anand Persaud said the only objective of the newspaper in reporting on the deals of the presidential advisor was to ensure that legitimate questions relating to an official in a public office were answered; in this case how he came to be assigned the property on Mandela Avenue and why the purchase price was $1.5m. Persaud said further questions arose after Lumumba attempted to justify his acquisition of the Mandela Avenue property and SN was perfectly in order to pursue these and will continue to do so.
Noting that Lumumba questioned the use of McKenzie’s letter for the purpose of a major story, Persaud said statements by public officials whether past or present are of significant value in elucidating outstanding questions.
As to Lumumba’s allegation that Stabroek News engaged in gutter journalism by placing the news item about him on the same page with a story headlined `Man forged agreement of sale for land owned by brother’ , Persaud said the presidential advisor was being overly sensitive as the latter story was the appropriate size to fill the space left after the main story had been placed.
The Editor-in-Chief said that he welcomed Lumumba’s decision to provide more information on the various land deals and he hoped that he would continue to be co-operative if there were other questions that needed to be answered.
