The Minister of Lands, Dr. Turad Senessie, has been busy using his power to go after Private property and turned them to Government property. A recent case in point is when the Minister of Lands used his power to dispossess 4 acres of land which belongs to the Conteh family (Alpha Conteh, Kadijah Conteh and Marion Conteh) and dished it out to cronies of the SLPP Government like a plate of cookery.
Speaking to this press, one of the claimant of the land in question, Alpha Conteh, a SierraLeonean based in United States of America has thrown an open challenge to the Minister of Lands over a claim of government ownership of the land situated along peninsular road in the Western Area of the Republic of Sierra Leone.
While clearing the doubt, Alpha Conteh said, the parcel of land at Tokeh is his bonafide property which he bought twelve years ago from one Alhaji Slowe (Headman of the Tokeh village at that time), further stating after purchasing the land he registered it in his family name at the Ministry of Lands.
“The 4 acres of land situated at Tokeh village is the property of the Conteh family with documentary evidence shown to the effect”, the U.S based SierraLeonean told Voice of Salone Newspaper, adding that he has all authentic documents for the land such as conveyance, master plan, the Ministry chart showing the said property being surrounded by other private properties of individuals.
In addendum to that, he has a return receipt or log book showing the registration of the said acres of land and a police report that captured the encroachment of his land that was done by an independent surveyor.
When he realized that his land has been tampered with, Alpha said, he went to the Ministry and was told to meet with one Noah Fofanah and when contacted him, he requested for a meeting with him at a private hotel to negotiate and for him to give half of the land to strike a compromise. The claimant said he refused to dance to the tunes of Mr. Noah and as result of his refusal, the Ministry ordered a bulldozer to destroy the perimeter fence of his property.
In his bid to clear the bottlenecks and show proof of ownership for the land in question, Alpha said, he went to see the Minister of Lands, Dr. Turad Senesie. Upon his meeting with him, the Minister did not even bother to peruse his land document to ascertain his rightful ownership, but left him flabbergasted at his utterance that the Ministry has the right to destroy his perimeter fence and take away his legally owned property because all lands in Sierra Leone is owned by Government except one that is granted to someone by the government itself.
Conteh believes that his right has been trampled upon and has filed a case to seek redress over the matter in court.
“The foremost priority of the Government is to protect the welfare of its citizens, but the reverse has been seen in my own case”, said Alpha Conteh in an angry mood.
In a bid to sound the views of the Minister of Lands, Dr. Turad Senesie, about the issues under investigation via text messages sent on his WhatsApp, he refused to respond to us.
Meanwhile, the law of Sierra Leone gives the right to every citizens to acquire any land in Sierra Leone. Land in Sierra Leone can be obtained through purchased, lease, allocation, gift, clearing and adverse possession.
