$800 per acre – Nigel Hughes received 75 acres of leased land under APNU+AFC

Leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC) Nigel Hughes secured 25 acres of land under the former APNU+AFC administration during a period when it was supposed to be in caretaker mode, following the passage of the no-confidence motion.

Hughes also received another 50 acres of land, after the coalition administration was voted out of office but had refused to accept the elections results.

This was disclosed by Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo at his weekly press conference on Thursday, where he released copies of documents from the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GLSC), showing that the lands are located near the mouth of Groete Creek on the bank of the Essequibo River.

“The government had fallen …but Nigel Hughes long after the CCJ (Caribbean Court of Justice) ruling, secured land… Elections came and APNU[+AFC] lost the elections and on the 19 of March, 2020, he got another 50 acres,” Jagdeo highlighted.

The lands were leased through the GLSC.

The 2020 General and Regional Elections was held on March 2 but the Coalition surrendered power until August 2, five months later.

Recently, Hughes raised concerns about land deals signed by the PPP/C Government and called for a halt of all transactions until the conclusion of the 2025 General and Regional Elections.

However, Jagdeo said the PPP/C is a legitimate government and not in “caretaker” mode.

“We are vested with full power until elections but Nigel [Hughes] wants us to pause all transactions because it is an election year,” Jagdeo contended as he highlighted the “duplicitous” nature of the AFC Leader.

Based on the documents released, Hughes was granted permission to lease 25 acres of State land on October 24, 2019.

Then on March 19, 2020, he received permission to lease the additional acres of land in the same area.

The lands are purportedly being leased for agricultural purposes. The annual rent for the lands is G$800 per acre, according to the documents.

Efforts to contact Hughes for a comment on the situation proved futile.

However, he subsequently posted on his social media page to say that he never acquired the lands from the State but rather it was from a previous leaseholder.

He said that in relation to the lease at Groete Creek, in January 2016 he purchased 50 acres of land from Simon Munroe for the sum of $2 million and made an application at the GLSC for the land to be transferred. He claimed that since the grant of the provisional lease in March 2020, the GLSC has not issued a final lease and has refused to accept the payment of rent. He said that the same is the status with lease he attempted to acquire with another person.