By Joseph Allen
A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) is warning residents of Georgetown and other municipalities that if the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) does take up control of the councils they can lose their lands.
Speaking at a rally held last evening in Plum Park, Sophia just one week before Local Government Elections day, APNU Member of Parliament, Christopher Jones told a small gathering that the PPP/C sees Georgetown and many other areas as strategic hubs for business and as such it is moving to control the council and further dispossess people of prime lands and give them to investors aligned with it.
Jones said that with the rise of the oil and gas sectors, the PPP/C needs land for investment and the key areas are places like Georgetown, New Amsterdam and Linden.
“The PPP/C if they get control of the municipalities all of those thousands of properties and empty lots in Georgetown, they will foreclose on them and their friends their families and their cronies are already waiting to pay for them”, Jones charged.
Jones said that the PPP/C does nothing unless it benefits and the council has the power to foreclose on properties.
He then added that these areas are now run by APNU and where concessions were granted to persons who are in arrears.
These concessions included giving more time to pay rates and taxes, etc.
Jones insisted that these concessions have helped property owners to get up to date with taxes that not were paid for years and they are now not in default.
“The PPP/C and their financiers recognized that if they have to construct apartments, you can’t do it way up the East Bank, you have to do it in George-town. So, here is why they need power of the municipalities. Across this capital city; there are hundreds if not thousands of properties and empty lots that have outstanding rates and taxes, and by law the municipality has every right to foreclose on those properties and sell them. But, it’s the APNU councils who over the years have not foreclosed on anyone’s property and the city council introduced amnesties and they gave those people an opportunity to pay their taxes, minus the interest”, Jones added.
“New Amsterdam where the shore base and other oil operations are happening … similar to Georgetown the PPP/C has their eyes on New Amsterdam for the same reason. President, Mohammed Irfaan Ali just returned from Brazil, where he had talks with the Brazilian President about the construction of the road from Brazil into Linden. Now, who lives in Linden? And if you have a massive highway coming all the way from Brazil and passing through Linden…Linden in its own right will become another economic municipality and the PPP/C knows this”, Jones contended.
He charged that the PPP/C has now moved to strategic communities after many years of neglect for the sake of their economic good.
Jones said that those in the communities must open their eyes to the underlying aim of the PPP/C Government.
