According to communication unit in Ministry of Lands Housing and Country Planning, 3rd Floor Youyi Building, Freetown, 3rd September, cleared the air on allegation on the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Country Planning of which a writer by the name of ‘The Activist’, alleging that “the Minister, Dr. Denis Sandy is illegally converting Private Land belonging to one Mr John Okrafo-Smart. We want to categorically make it clear that his write up is baseless, unfounded and untrue.
His motive is to tarnish the good image and hard work of the result oriented Minister and the Ministry. It’s now evidently clear that Land grabbers are not happy with the Reclamation of State Lands and have developed another tactic by employing unpatriotic citizens to undermine the hard work of government and by extension the Ministry.
The fact is that following a thorough investigation by the Ministry for the property in question, it came out clearly that the said land is a ‘State Land’ based on the LS Number and the documents Mr. Okarfo-Smart himself presented to the Ministry. Further investigations revealed that Mr. Okarfo-Smart had back-dated the documents with the help of the former director Christian Pratt which adds another layer to the corruption that was unearthed.
The Land in question is 0.1696 acres situated at Wilberforce Village. It was supervised by Mr. Syl Pratt, former Acting Director of Survey and Lands at Ministry. In 2019 Mr. John Okarfo-Smart submitted cadasters survey plan of LS 584/03 claiming the same piece of Land.
The LS number in the survey cadaster plan provided by John Smart could not be found anywhere in the database of the Ministry. In other words, this was a fraudulent claim. Based on the professional findings of the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Country Planning, it was unanimously agreed that the Ministry should reclaim the said property and straighten the situation involving the John Okrafo-Smart and Mr. Jeffrey families who were both claiming ownership of the said land.
While the Smart family is deceiving the public by falsely accusing the Minister of damages and stolen property, Dr Sandy and his top officers are providing State Lands to citizens of this country to construct their own houses, and allocating land for the construction of factories for the development of Sierra Leone. We want to assure the public that the Ministry is always open to them to do their land documentation and settle all disputes relating to State Lands in the country. The New Direction Agenda, under the leadership of HE President Julius Maada Bio, is committed to the righteous provision of lands to citizens fairly and transparently.
The Land in question is situated very close to the house of the Okrafors they somehow thought it would be easy to illegally grab a piece beyond the boundaries of their current home. And have tried to use fake documents to grab the said piece of Land. The Okrafors even brought out their bull dogs to attack government workers doing their jobs but the securities handled the situation very professionally.
The public is assured that the minister is much focused and will never be distracted by such frivolous allegations.
