Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo has revealed that Alliance For Change (AFC) presidential candidate Nigel Hughes secured 75 acres of prime land under the Coalition government after it fell to a No-Confidence Motion (NCM).
This revelation came after Hughes released elements of a contract between the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) and United States-based Guyanese businessman Ed Ahmad, questioning the sale of prime lands at Ogle and near ExxonMobil’s headquarters for $30 million per acre.
“Can CH&PA indicate where a citizen can purchase an acre of land in Plantation Ogle, near ExxonMobil’s intended head office, from CH&PA for $30 million? A house lot in some residential locations exceeds $30 million. We demand that the minister responsible for CH&PA issue an immediate statement on the authenticity of this agreement,” Hughes stated in a Facebook post.
Following the disclosure, CH&PA Chief Executive Officer Sherwin Greaves resigned. However, he noted that his resignation was not an admission of guilt but due to a vicious public vilification campaign.
Addressing the land issues at a press briefing at Freedom House on Thursday, Dr. Jagdeo presented documents indicating that Hughes had acquired 25 acres of prime land in 2014 and an additional 50 acres after the passage of the no-confidence motion against the APNU+AFC Coalition in 2018.
“Nigel Hughes, on October 24, 2019, got 25 acres of leased land—prime land—after the no-confidence motion had passed and after the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) ruled in June that the no-confidence motion was valid, stating that the government must be in a caretaker mode. We are not in a caretaker mode; we are a government vested with full powers until the elections, and he wants us to pause transactions,” Dr. Jagdeo stated.
His remarks were also in response to Hughes’ call for the government to pause land sales, given that it is an election year.
“On the face of it, it sounds reasonable… . But Nigel Hughes, long after the CCJ ruling, secured land. They were giving land to him. He secured 25 acres… APNU lost the elections, and then, on March 19, after the elections, Nigel Hughes got another 25 acres of land. And then, again on March 19, he got another 25 acres of land,” Dr. Jagdeo said.
He further alleged that documents contained information on other APNU members who received land after the elections and after the government had fallen, though he did not disclose their names.
“It represents tens of thousands of acres of land, if you look at this long list here,” Dr. Jagdeo said while holding up documents. He added, “We didn’t take back their land… but I just wanted to highlight his duplicity.”
