Hughes admits to buying State land from man with no title

…sees nothing wrong with getting lease approval during APNU/AFC caretaker mode

Leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Nigel Hughes, has admitted that he secured 50 acres of leased lands located on the left side of the Essequibo River from an individual who did not have documentation of ownership for the land.
During his press conference on Thursday, Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo had disclosed that Hughes had benefitted from 75 acres of land under the previous A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Government.
Hughes had subsequently admitted via a social media post to purchasing 50 acres of land on the left bank of the Essequibo River and below the mouth of the Groete Creek from an individual name Simon Munroe.
However, Attorney General (AG) Anil Nandlall, SC, later revealed that there is no record at the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GLSC) to prove that the individual ever had the lease for the land – something which Hughes, a lawyer by profession, confirmed during his party’s press conference on Friday.

“I purchased 50 acres of land from [Munroe] on the left bank of the Essequibo River for the sum of two million dollars. At the time of the acquisition, he had not yet acquired his lease. He had been in occupation and he had been waiting on Guyana Lands and Surveys,” he stated.
When asked, Hughes could not say how long the individual had been occupying the land and why he never obtained the lease document.
“I couldn’t say how long he was there but I certainly went there and inspected it, and saw he was occupying it… He said he’d been frustrated. He’d been waiting and waiting and he had not gotten [the lease]. And if I recall correctly, he either wanted to migrate or some relative of him wanted to migrate and he need the money [hence his decision to sell the land]…,” the AFC leader said.
“Whether he was squatter or not, I won’t know. Whether he was squatting is really irrelevant to the process because at the end of the day, I still had to go to the Guyana Lands and Surveys. I had to apply to them and they went through the process… We paid the inspection fee, they went out to inspect so you may want to ask them what they found when they went to inspect,” the politician noted.
Hughes went on to dismiss claims that he received the land during the period when the Coalition Government was in a caretaker mode after falling to a No Confidence Motion (NCM) in December 2018.

Nothing wrong
Despite the records showing that the provisional lease was granted to him on October 24, 2019 during that caretaker period, Hughes maintains that he did nothing wrong.
“2016, 30th January is when I went to pay for the inspection fee. There was no caretaker Government then. That is when the process started – 30th January, 2016. That is two years, almost three years, before the No Confidence vote. The process, the inspection conducted by the Guyana Lands and Surveys, the survey – all those things happened long before… There was no suggestion that this transaction was anything other than an above-board transaction,” he contended.
Recently, the AFC Leader had come in for heavy criticisms after calling for the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government to halt all land deals amid allegations of corruption at the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) in the Housing and Water Ministry.
Vice President (VP) Jagdeo has already called out Hughes for his “duplicity,” reminding that he benefited from large tracts of land during the Coalition’s caretaker mode. “We’re not in a caretaker mode. We’re a Government vested with full powers until the elections and he wants us to pause on any transactions…,” the Vice President countered.
Meanwhile, there had also been reports of other instances whereby Hughes represented clients to purchase state lands at low costs.
For instance, VP Jagdeo had revealed that just before the March 2020 elections but after the No-Confidence Motion, Hughes’s client – a Trinidadian company – had secured 25 acres of land at Ogle, East Coast Demerara (ECD), from the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) at $26 million per acre. At the time, other lands in the area were being sold at $30 million per acre.
Additionally, the Vice President revealed that the same Trinidadian company had also secured another 10 acres of land at $10 million per acre at Earl’s Court, La Bonne Intention (LBI), ECD – a transaction for which Hughes was listed as the Company Secretary and a Director.
Hughes explained that his law firm – Hughes, Fields and Stoby – acts as the local registered office for overseas based clients that are establishing businesses in Guyana and also offers corporate secretarial services.
“Our law firm provides that [service] for several companies both domestic and international, and quiet often, I am named as the Company Secretary. Similarly, in the Directorship of Companies… So, there are several companies on which several lawyers, and certainly myself, sit on the company. The important thing about the company is not the Company Secretary or the Director, it’s who owns the company… [and] who are the shareholders… I am not a shareholder of any company that has been awarded any lands in Ogle, in Earl’s Court or anywhere else,” he asserted.
Moreover, the AFC Leader went onto explain that he has never been a part of any of the negotiations to determine the purchase price for any lands, stating that this is usually between the shareholders/investors and the Government.
Hughes further stated that he welcomes any investigation into his acquisition of the lands near the Essequibo River as well as his role in the land deals on ECD.