Continuing to intervene on the residentsﾒ behalf, Sidney Collie, the aspiring FNM candidate for the Blue Hills constituency in which the disputed land is located suggested that the government should ensure that due process is followed in the situation.
“If the government really wants to abide by the strict doctrine of the rule of law, the government would be advised to first obtain an order from a court of competent jurisdiction after due process, to evict the allegedly ﾑuncooperative squatters,ﾒ” he said in a press statement.
“This attempt by the government would then afford all interested parties an opportunity to also be heard, unless, off course, the government has no regard for the separation of powers, but instead wants to arrogate unto itself all the powers of the executive, the legislature and the judiciary in its tunnel vision haste to carry out its announced housing policy even if that is to the detriment of poor Bahamians.”
Following the appearance of a pair of tractors to continue making way for the new housing project ﾖ which drew the ire of the residents ﾖ Housing Minister Neville Wisdom explained that he is trying to marry compassion with the rule of law.
According to the minister, only 15 persons squatting on government land designated for the Firetrail II housing subdivision remain.
He said 215 of them have already cleared out after receiving vacancy notices, as the government pursues its plans to construct a low cost subdivision on the property in southern New Providence.
Mr. Wisdom explained that the tractors were sent to the site to tear down abandoned shacks overrun by rodents and human waste which were for the most part occupied by illegal immigrants.
Mr. Wisdom said he was trying to marry compassion with the rule of law.
“If he is serious about this, then he would see to it that his Ministry, which is replete with bureaucrats and technocrats,ﾅwork with the present residents of the Fire Trail Road area to either keep their properties after making the recommended improvements, or assist those who need assistance to find suitable alternative accommodation for their families,” said Mr. Collie.
“Surely, threatening to demolish their houses and throwing them on the streets is certainly not compassion. I invite the government, through its ministry of housing to abandon its heavy handed approach of threatening to demolish these properties and instead work with all the residents in the fire trail road area until all these Bahamian families living there are suitably accommodated.”
Minister Wisdom explained that Mr. Collie was simply trying to make an issue out of a matter that has already been resolved. He said that housing officials have met with the residents collectively and individually and he acknowledged that some of them have agreed to upgrade their housing structures and purchase the properties.
More than 5,000 applicants waiting to become homeowners have qualified for the governmentﾒs low cost housing.
By: Stephen Gay, The Bahama Journal
