President to meet toshaos council over lands inquiry

President David Granger yesterday acknowledged that there was no consultation with the National Toshaos Council (NTC) prior to the establishment of a controversial Lands Commission of Inquiry (CoI) and said he will be meeting with a delegation today to further discuss the matter.

Speaking to reporters at State House shortly after Dela Britton was sworn in as Chair of the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), Granger said that government has embarked on a procedure to deal with the issue adding that the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs has made certain recommendations.

“I did not have a consultation …but I am meeting the National Toshaos Council tomorrow (today). I met with the APA (Amerindian People’s Association) and we have agreed on a way forward”, he said.

Last month, the NTC, which represents some 80,000 persons and is made up of 212 leaders, said it was never consulted or asked for its input on the CoI.

As a result, NTC Head, Joel Fredericks had pointed out that the NTC had felt sidelined and that the government was not adhering to the laws in the Amerindian Act that define how Amerindian Land Titling issues should be dealt with.

NTC Vice Chair Lennox Shuman had also expressed his concerns over the government’s decision to pair indigenous land rights issues with the claims of freed Africans. He had said that the Council was of the opinion that the two issues were drastically different, since having something passed down for generations and buying something were not the same.

The CoI, appointed by President Granger in March, is tasked with examining and making recommendations to resolve all the issues and uncertainties surrounding the individual, joint or communal ownership of land acquired by freed Africans; claims of Amerindian land titling; and other matters relative to land titling.

The commission is being chaired by Reverend George Chuck-a-Sang. In a brief address at the swearing in of the members of the commission in March, Granger explained that the CoI is meant to settle all controversies originating from disagreement over ownership of land, so as to satisfy all of the citizens of this country “that we need not fight each other for land; that we will investigate their claims and we will respond to their just demands.”

A marathon debate on the PPP/C motion for the revocation of the CoI was voted down by government earlier this month.