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Co-op society stops farmer from entering disputed land
…as feud escalates
Members of the New Friendship Farmers’ Cooperative Society have stopped farmer Rafeek Kabool from cultivating a plot of land that they claim he is occupying illegally, but which the farmer claims belongs to a relative.
Philbert Blair, the society’s chairman, told Kaieteur News that the members made the decision on Monday to stop Kabool, a non-member, from occupying land which he has been cultivating without the society’s permission.
Blair said that they have notified officers at the Grove Police Station via letter about their decision.
“There’s a letter with the society’s stamp at the Grove Police Station and he can’t go back there (to the land) or he will be arrested.”
Blair has alleged that Kabool has been occupying land that belongs to a group member who had once employed the farmer. The chairman refuted Kabool’s claims that he and the member are relatives.
Blair also accused Kabool of sending false claims of victimization to senior Government officials and to the Ethnic Relations Committee after being confronted about his illegal act.
According to Blair, Kabool’s claims were proved to be unfounded, but he said that the farmer has continued to cause discord among farmers in the area. He said that an incident two weeks ago, in which Kabool had accused members of destroying some of his crops, was the last straw.
Blair and other members had given statements to the police two Sundays ago after Kabool accused persons in the group of hacking down several of his plantain and sweet potato plants in a bid to force him off the disputed land.
Blair has contended that the ‘sabotage’ was staged.
Kabool, who took Kaieteur News to view the damage, claims that the farmland he now occupies belonged to an uncle. He claims that he has been on the land for about 15 years.
According to Kabool, the dispute between him and some members began around 2005, when he protested the confiscation of land from another farmer.
He identified two senior group members as being among those who have been targeting him, and claimed that a series of incidents followed.
The farmer said that around 2005, a former employee of one of the farmers chopped him with a cutlass while he was leaving his farm with some produce. According to Kabool, he managed to wrest the cutlass from his assailant and took the weapon to the Grove Police Station. He says he also got a police medical. However, no one was charged.
He claimed that on another occasion, someone destroyed his boat engine and made off with his boat.
Kabool claims that on one occasion, someone informed him that several of his plants had been destroyed. He said that on visiting his farm, he discovered that about 200 plantain trees had been chopped down on his land. Some of his sweet potato plants had also been damaged.
He then reported the damage at the Grove Police Station and gave the ranks the names of two of the persons he suspected.
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