A concerned constitutionalist, with regards the many complaints made against the Minister of Lands, Dr. Denis Sandy has stated that the fundamental role of any Government is the protection and promotion of the rights and liberties of its citizens, foremost amongst these is the right to own property.
For example, one Madam Yvette Auber Shears is an aggrieved Sierra Leonean who firmly believes that the Minister of Lands behaved outside the scope of the law and outside the remit of his powers of a Minister in taking armed security personnel to take over land for which she says she has documents showing ownership inherited from her parents.
What irks Madam Auber most is that Dr. Sandy woefully failed to ask the family to show evidence of their ownership of the said parcel of land before expropriating it to the State.
This and many other complaints have come from the Krios who dwell in the Western Area about Dr. Sandy setting aside ancient ownership rights with utter impunity.
The point being made is that His Excellency, President Bio, should be fully aware that the most prized possession that anybody can hand over to his or her children is land, especially one on which a house or houses stand.
If Dr. Sandy is, allegedly, without recourse to legality is going about dispossessing people of their lands, that is breeding ground for discontent against the President and his party by an influential section of the populace that has political implications when it comes to elections.
As such, it is high time that President Bio opens his ears to the complaints from the Krios that Dr. Sandy is infringing on their rights to own inherited lands, considering that unlike the provincials, they are highly educated with amongst them intellectuals that are lawyers, etc.
Land ownership runs down the line from generation to generation, except abrogated through sale or legal forfeiture to the State for public use, etc.
For example, through inheritance, the Queen of England and her family are the largest landowners in the city of London inherited from their ancestors.
In which light, whilst nobody quarrels with Dr. Sandy over his right to protect and where evidence is available, retrieve State lands, at the same time people have ancient title deeds to lands in the Western Area that date to even as far back as the possession of Freetown as a Crown Colony in 1787 and the return of the captives from Nova Scotia, Jamaica and England after Lord Mansfield declared slavery illegal in British territories.
Both President Bio and Dr. Sandy as Lands Minister are thereby called upon to have a careful rethink about the issue of ownership of land in the Western Area.
