Nandlall slams attempts to ‘mislead’ Afro-Guyanese

Attorney General Anil Nandlall rejected assertions made that the current administration has been infringing on land rights and instead posited that land titles are being given to Afro-Guyanese who have, for years, been occupying lands without those documents.

“Today, our government is regularising Ann’s Grove, a slave village without a title.

“Over 400 families will get (their) transport before the end of this year,” Nandlall said during his ‘Issues in the News’ commentary on Tuesday night.

Furthermore, Nandlall said three other villages occupied primarily by Afro-Guyanese, which are all found along the West Coast of Berbice, are being regularised by the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) government. That means that the residents will soon get their land titles.

Nandlall responded to statements made by Vincent Alexander, the Chairman of the International Decade for People of African Descent Assembly – Guyana (IDPADA-G), at this week’s United Nations’ 4th Session of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent. At that forum, Mr. Alexander accused the government of seizing what he described as “ancestral land.” Mr. Alexander also opined that there are fewer opportunities for Afro-Guyanese locally.

Nandlall rejected these assertions and zeroed in on Mr. Alexander’s statements on ancestral lands. The Attorney General reminded the public that there is no concept of ancestral lands in Guyana’s law. Even so, he highlighted the government’s efforts to regularise lands and give legal ownership to the people living there for years.

He also accused Mr. Alexander and the opposition political party he is affiliated with of misleading Guyanese.

“They will continue to mislead Afro-Guyanese on these matters, but you know what, more and more people are becoming educated

“They were in government from 2015 to 2020, they cannot point to any grouping of Afro-Guyanese, in any village, that they have done something substantial for,” Nandlall said.