Dear Editor,
We request, with much urgency, that our letter be published, as it addresses the plea of a group of dedicated people of the land, whose very livelihood rests in a precarious balance, with them having everything to lose.
The above-named society was founded in excess of 50 years ago under the initiative of Booker’s Sugar Co, with 30 members along the Corentyne Public Road. Together, these people built their homes and farmed eleven acres of land that was allotted to them. Some graduated into mechanics and established welding shops; there were three commercial chicken farms, while the others remained as livestock and cash crops’ farmers.
This co-op society ran headlong into problems with the Hanif family, and was subsequently thrown into a deliberate defunct state in 2012 by the aforementioned family. With the Booker’s lease expiring some eighteen years ago, multiple attempts have been made to renew the lease, but all attempts were denied.
It must be noted that the former chairman, secretary and treasurer reside within the immediate vicinity, on the co-op’s lands.
With the aid of a senior controversial lawyer instated as the new secretary, Mr. Hanif organised with his nephews and sons and one misinformed member of the original co-op a cunning and swift ploy to usurp the rights to the lands in contention. They approached the Special Purpose Unit (SPU) and reapplied for the lease, unknowingly to the other original members, and successfully reregistered the said co-op society in their interests. Thereafter, they issued legal notices for the original members to vacate the land they’d occupied and had made investments in.
This act by men of no honour is an outright, unabashed and cold-blooded banishment of the people who had banded together, toiled for countless hours, and with humble resources had shaped and developed their fair square of earth with their own hands.
We are calling on the President and the Prime Minister to please intervene in this delicately unfortunate and explosive situation, and use their God-given positions to initiate a peaceful resolution.
Yours respectfully,
Members of the Co-op
