WCB farmers call for REO’s firing

…after farmlands bulldozed

Farmers who operate in the vicinity of the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) office at Fort Wellington late last week picketed the Regional Executive Officer (REO) claiming discrimination.
Their contention is that the REO, Ovid Morrison, has allegedly caused the destruction of their crops. The farmers were forced to take to the picket line after some of their crops were destroyed by actions taken by Morrison.
Morrison had ordered those farmers to remove so that the area could be developed into model farms. It was on October 27, 2016, that notices were placed at the entrances to the farms situated at Naarstigheid and Catherine’s Lust, denying them access to the farmlands.

Some of the farmers on the picket line

In April last year, the farmers held a protest demanding that they be able to continue farming. On Wednesday, another protest was held outside the REO’s office at Fort Wellington; this time they upped the pressure, calling for his removal.
According to the farmers, on Tuesday last, an excavator went to their farms at Catherine’s Lust and Naarstigheid, destroying some of their crops. The farmers occupy 50 acres of land on which they cultivate cash crop, fruits and rear livestock. Some of them stated that they have been cultivating the land since the previous Administration was in office.

Farmers protesting the removal of the REO

The farmers are from Bath Settlement, Experiment, Naarstigheid, Fort Wellington and Hopetown.
However, the dissatisfied farmers are from the village of Bath Settlement, which is considered a People’s Progressive Party (PPP) stronghold, while the farmers who live at Hopetown remain untroubled.
From the picket line, they made it clear that they were being discriminated against. The farmers noted that farming has been providing employment to a lot of young people in the region and this move by the REO will render many of them jobless.
At a press conference held on April 10, 2017, the REO had said he was developing an economic agriculture model farm to which approval was granted by the RDC. However, Region Chairman Vickchand Ramphal told
this publication that this was not the case.

A section of the farmland that was destroyed

“When the Regional Executive Officer would have served notices to farmers back in 2017, I made it very clear that the Regional Democratic Council of Region Number Five did not make any such decision to remove those farmers from that plot of land at Naarstigheid. Further I instructed the REO not to remove any of those farmers from the land there because all of them depend heavily on the land to provide for their families.”
Meanwhile, at another press conference held on January 9, 2018, Morrison told reporters that the model farm will look at factors such as land selection, crop cultivation, and principles of crop rotation, as well as waste consolidation but the Chairman holds out that it is a political move to displace the farmers.
On this note, the Regional Chairman in an invited comment said the REO’s way of behaviour could best be described as dictatorial. “Not only in this issue here with farmers but also with the security guards but other issues that would have arisen in this region.”
Recently the REO chased a group of guards out of the RDC Boardroom. The guards had gone to the Regional Chairman to discuss the non-payment of salaries from the company which has been contracted to provide security to Government buildings in the region.
During the protest, the REO chased guards out of the company’s office in the RDC compound. The security firm had been using a section of a building in the RDC compound as its local office.
Ramphal said he has penned a letter to President David Granger as it relates to Morrison’s actions and issues affecting the region.