Gov’t will go after “architects” not “victims” in Ogle lands giveaway

Gov’t will go after “architects” not “victims” in Ogle lands giveaway — VP

Nov 08, 2020 News

VP, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo

Kaieteur News – Vice President (VP), Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, has indicated that the government will not criminally go after the developers or “victims” who received acres of prime Ogle lands.
But rather, the VP emphasized that the “architects” under the A Partnership For National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) regime who were involved in the giveaway of the lands “will not be spared.”
“The architects are not going to get away that easily,” the VP said to the media during a press engagement, while indicating that a number of the developers have refused to return the lands that were vested to them.
When asked why the government has taken the route to allow the developers to walk scot-free, Dr. Jagdeo reminded that those developers had never asked for the titles to be transferred to them.
“He (former Finance Minister, Winston Jordan),” the VP said, “unilaterally transferred the lands to them (the developers). I think that there was a hope that they were going to get away with this, or collect some money from the people or something like that. I don’t know what madness would cause this to happen.”
It is in this regard that the VP referred to the developers as “victims.”
In that same vein, however, he reminded the media that the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) had been warning investors not to get involved with the coalition.

Former Finance Minister, Winston Jordan

“We were saying that they shouldn’t engage, so they are not totally exempt from blame,” Dr. Jagdeo noted, as he added that because the developers relinquished the lands that were vested to them, the government will not go after them with legal proceedings.
Kaieteur News, in a series of articles, had exposed how the former Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan, and, as well as the head of the National Industrial Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), Colvin Heath-London had vested lands without receiving full payments.
In fact, Jordan and Heath-London had vested almost 100 acres of prime Ogle lands that were valued at $3B, but NICIL received a meager $64M as payments.
One glaring case involves developer Navigant Builders (Windsor Estates), which had plans of developing a prestigious housing scheme in Ogle.
Without its knowledge, and even without issuing any payment to the government, Navigant Builders was gifted 30 acres of land worth $900M.
When PPP/C assumed office, Navigant, as well as four other developers, took the decision to return the lands vested to them. The

Former NICIL head, Colvin Heath-London

developers premised their rescinding on the fact that they wanted to engage with the government, but on transparent terms.
Last week, the Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney General (AG), Anil Nandlall, signaled his intentions of taking legal actions against the former Finance Minister, and the recently sacked NICIL head, Heath-London.
According to the AG, the legal proceedings are grounded in the contention that Jordan and Heath-London had played primary roles in the giveaway of prime Ogle lands, said to be worth billions of dollars.
Concerningly, these giveaways took place under the leadership of the APNU+AFC after the March 2 General and Regional Elections.
AG Nandlall has since sought the assistance of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and its Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU) to investigate transactions involving state lands during the tenure of the APNU+AFC Government.