SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

A group of men is run­ning amok in the Waller­field farm­ing com­mu­ni­ty at 100 Acres Road. Farm­ers say the men, who re­cent­ly moved in­to the dis­trict, launched a reign of ter­ror with threats, in­tim­i­da­tion and vi­o­lence, try­ing to force them off their farm lands.

The farm­ers who have been cul­ti­vat­ing crops and rear­ing live­stock on the sprawl­ing acreage for sev­er­al years, be­lieve the men are il­le­gal­ly try­ing to gain con­trol of the land.

“100 acres was re­al­ly peace­ful but all kinds of things go­ing wrong,” said farmer Ed­ward Mo­hammed.

Wallerfield farmer Paul Abraham his garden on Tuesday, 14th February.

SHIRLEY BAHADUR

Ac­cord­ing to Mo­hammed, prob­lems start­ed in 2020 when peo­ple start­ed in­vad­ing the lands af­ter plans were an­nounced for the mul­ti-mil­lion-dol­lar Churchill-Roo­sevelt High­way ex­ten­sion to San­gre Grande.

“There was land grab­bing in the back here. Every­body start­ed to snatch land. Men came with guns in their waists for land too,” he re­called.

He said the sit­u­a­tion has fur­ther de­te­ri­o­rat­ed and farm­ers are get­ting death threats.

The farm­ers, some of whom are await­ing re­new­al of their leas­es while oth­ers al­ready have their farmer’s badges, said they made sev­er­al re­ports to the po­lice but have not been get­ting sat­is­fac­to­ry re­spons­es.

“We have been oc­cu­py­ing the land for years but these fel­las have been go­ing around claim­ing it is theirs. They have nev­er shown us any doc­u­ments giv­ing them au­tho­ri­sa­tion to use the land,” said re­tired sol­dier Paul Abra­ham.

Farmer David Jackson pick caraille on Tuesday, 14th February.

SHIRLEY BAHADUR

“You walk­ing around with a blade in your hand and threat­en­ing peo­ple. They have noth­ing to live for. They not plant­i­ng one thing but they want the land you cul­ti­vat­ing,” he said.

“Re­cent­ly, we saw them walk­ing with a bunch of pa­pers in their hands and with peo­ple we don’t know. We sus­pect is some kind of rack­et go­ing on up here.”

Abra­ham, whose five-acre plot is lo­cat­ed at the end of a dirt track, said the men de­stroyed his crops, fruit trees and an­i­mal pens. They have al­so tak­en over a por­tion of his field.

“The threats have been hap­pen­ing for four months now. They have been re­peat­ed­ly telling me that they will send me home. They will kill me. Every time I come on the land they would ap­pear with cut­lass­es in their hands to in­tim­i­date me... to run me from here.”

Fear­ful for his life, Abra­ham aban­doned his fields and re­moved his live­stock last year.

“Farm­ing is what I do to earn an hon­est dol­lar. These men keep say­ing they are not afraid of po­lice and sol­diers. I fed up mak­ing re­ports at the Ari­ma sta­tion. It’s frus­trat­ing now,” he said

He pro­duced re­ceipts show­ing the re­ports he made of ma­li­cious dam­age and “chop threats” at the Ari­ma Po­lice Sta­tion be­tween Oc­to­ber and De­cem­ber last year. How­ev­er, the po­lice told him the in­ci­dents were land mat­ters.

A Guardian Me­dia team wit­nessed an in­ci­dent of in­tim­i­da­tion by two men who bran­dished cut­lass­es and kept telling Abra­ham: “Go from here! We don’t want to see you in the back here.”

Abra­ham said he was one of sev­er­al sol­diers who as­sist­ed the State in re­mov­ing il­le­gal oc­cu­pants from lands when he was in the army.

“Now the State is not even help­ing me,” he lament­ed.

He showed a let­ter dat­ed Oc­to­ber 22, 2022, to act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of State Lands (COSL) Bhan­mati Seecha­ran ask­ing for her in­ter­ven­tion in the mat­ter.

Wallerfield farmer Andel Thomas picks hot peppers from his field on Tuesday, 14th February.

SHIRLEY BAHADUR

An­oth­er farmer, who re­quest­ed anonymi­ty, said the men have been show­ing farm­ers in oth­er ar­eas of Waller­field a cadas­tral map and claim­ing they own the lands. Those farm­ers, he said, are old and un­able to read.

Tyrice Padil­la said he was as­sault­ed by one of the men last De­cem­ber while he was re­pair­ing an un­paved road lead­ing to his farm. He got a head butt to his face and had to seek med­ical at­ten­tion at the San­gre Grande Hos­pi­tal af­ter his vi­sion be­came blurred and he ex­pe­ri­enced se­vere pains.

Al­though Padil­la re­port­ed the in­ci­dent to the Ari­ma Po­lice, he said the men were not charged with as­sault.

The farm­ers al­so com­plained that thieves have al­so been cart­ing away their crops. Last week, thieves in­vad­ed Mo­hammed’s land and stole three bags of hot pep­pers val­ued at $3,000.

“We have to take turns watch­ing our fields af­ter work­ing the whole day,” he said

Seecha­ran, who re­cent­ly promised that the COSL’s Mon­i­tor­ing and En­force­ment Unit would launch an in­ves­ti­ga­tions, did not re­spond to calls for a com­ment on the farm­ers’ lat­est com­plaints. Mes­sages sent to As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice for the North East­ern Di­vi­sion Wayne Mys­tar al­so went unan­swered.