By King Brown, sarwahking@gmail.com
BUCHANAN, Liberia- Citizens of the Bacconie Community in Grand Bassa County are calling for comprehensive agreement involving all parties before the expected granting of parcels of land to some concessions and autonomous agencies.
A youth elder of the community also wants the land rights law respected to the fullest in every step of the way.
“Why should the government ignore the Land Rights Law and take over 2000 acres of land that don’t belong to them and give it to NOCAL? We want peace and not problem, all we are saying here, let all these processes about land stop immediately, so that the community people can identify their customary land” Emmanuel Kieh noted.
He stated emphatically that the people of Bacconie are simply opting against going to the dark days of war and chaos and one way to do that is prudently handling land disputes.
The Bacconie citizens have threatened lawsuit against the Government if the right thing is not done.
Emmanuel Kieh’s statement which is reechoed by several of his kinsmen comes in the wake of assertions that government was on the verge of allotting parcels of land to facilitate the operations of NOCAL, the NPA and the Liberia Petroleum Refining Corporation (LPRC) and the BHP Billiton Mining Company.
They want the Bassa legislative caucus, the Land Authority and the International Community to intervene in the development.
The citizens said while they embrace the development, they firstly want the conduct of a proper land identification process to be followed by a comprehensive agreement that covers such vital issues as relocation, resettlement benefits, job opportunities, scholarships, basic social services and facilities such as hospital, hand pumps, latrines, among others.
They also want capacity building and empowerment for farmers based within their community.
“What NPA is doing now is that, they don’t want to give us anything but just to move us from here. Just these few days, the government of Liberia through LPRC brought NOCAL and gave them 300 acres of land to build their fueling station and we learned that Billiton is coming in too without consulting the community leaders. This is very bad for our democracy,” the Zone Leader of the Airfield Community Emmanuel Smith said.
Some of the citizens said though they have been informed through NPA Managing Director Bill Tweahway of the extension of the Buchanan Port, they have not been told exactly when it is all set to begin.