The Georgetown Mayor and City Council has asked the High Court to order servants and agents of the State to vacate the building that once housed the City Constabulary Training Complex on Water Street, on the grounds that City Hall is the sole and rightful owner of the property.
Mayor of Georgetown, Alfred Mentore said in the interim, the Council has asked for an injunction to be granted restraining the State, its servants, agents and or workers from carrying out any construction on the Water Street property.
“We have moved for injunctive relief to ask the Court to grant us the necessary reliefs so that we can have back our property, so that we can be able to have access, and be able to determine what is the best use for that property,” Mayor Mentore told reporters during an APNU press conference today.
He is convinced that the Council has a strong case against the State, and that the Water Street property, will remain within the possession of the Council.
In the case brought against the Attorney General, Anil Nandlall and the Owner of RK’s Guyana Security Service, Roshan Khan, the Mayor and Town Council of Georgetown, by way of transport, owns the property in dispute located at Lot 15 Water Street, South Cummingsburg, Georgetown.
The City Council contends that despite being the owner of the property since the 1800s, the State, with the aid of the Guyana Police Force, has barred the elected Council from accessing the premises, and has since erected a “No Trespassing” sign on the property. The sign reads “No Trespassing, Site Earmarked for immediate development by Government of Guyana.”
The Court was told that a previous sign indicated that the property was secured by RK’s Security Service.
The City Council is stating that it did not hire RK Security, and did not authorize the security firm to enter the premises.
In wake of the current dispute, City Hall has asked the Court to declare that both the State and RK Security have trespassed on the property, and that they are not entitled to occupy or take possession of the property.
The Council is also seeking damages in excess of $5 million for the trespass committed by the defendants.
Mentore has also indicated that the Council’s attorneys led by Dexter Todd are also preparing to file another application in the Courts, this time addressing the Government’s seizure and reclassification of 57 Municipal roads by way of Ministerial Orders.
“We are almost at the stage of filing our action in relation to that matter. Like I said, we had an extraordinary meeting of the Council where we had a resolution passed, causing me as the Mayor to be a claimant in the matter on behalf of the Mayor and City Council. So, our attorneys have been looking at this matter, and they are getting up the necessary facts, and evidence to be able to proceed,” the Mayor said.
He maintains that the Council has the transport and other legal documents to support its positions that the 57 roads belong to the Municipality, and ought to be controlled by the Council.
“We have a number of transports available to us that speak to ownership of those assets, not ownership by some guessing, ownership by title. So, we have transports and titles for those streets and we will need to have those kinds of discussions,” the Mayor maintained.
The Government, through the Ministries of Local Government and Regional Development, Public Works and the Ministry of Legal Affairs, has accused the Municipality of neglecting its duties.
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