Businessman awaiting DBKK reply over withdrawal of letters to Inanam church
KOTA KINABALU: A prominent local businessman has demanded an answer from Kota Kinabalu City Hall (DBKK) over the withdrawal of instruction letters issued to a church in Inanam to remove part of the structures of its basketball court that has encroached into a road reserve.
NAH Welfare Foundation Sabah chairman George Ng said he had acquired a land of nearly 0.5 acre next to the basketball court located behind the church.
Ng said he had sponsored the construction of the basketball court over 10 years ago, and unknowingly built part of the court, including a basketball hoop, on the road reserve.
He claimed to have only known about the road reserve when he developed his own land adjacent to the basketball court.
Since then, he attempted to negotiate with the church and even offered to remove the structures that have encroached into the road reserve and rebuild the basketball court, but to no avail.
Ng later approached DBKK on the issue and City Hall had issued two letters dated April 1, 2009 and March 21, 2016 to instruct the church to evict the structures and plants on the road reserve.
However, he said City Hall issued another letter dated October 31, 2016 to withdraw both previous instruction letters on the removal of the structures.
Ng added that the Lands and Surveys Department had also issued eviction notices to the church dated September 9, 2016 and September 16, 2016 respectively.
Two years ago, Ng said he had sold the five-storey commercial building erected on his land.
He said one of the conditions in the Sales and Purchase Agreement signed with the buyer was to resolve the road reserve issue as the road was meant to be an emergency exit.
At present, he said access to his land was via the road at the tamu ground near the petrol station.
Hence, he hoped that DBKK would clarify the matter and resolve the issue.