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And while Petillo is leading the charge - the PUP today launched a campaign to discredit him. Petillo - is both land activist and land dealer - is now being called out for selling a half acre of land off Forest Drive in Belmopan for 400 grand.
The criticism here is that he is leading a protest objecting to government buying land for 460 thousand dollars per acre in the same general area.
Petillo says it's false on multiple levels. We spoke to him by phone:
Nigel Petillo
"First of all, that's not my land. Use my land. Why are we discussing a private transaction? We lived on that land for 40 years. When my mother moved there, we started living in an old bus, an old broken down Shaw bus. And slowly we put up a thatched roof. We live under coconut leaf and cohune leaf with some stick. Later on we build a small board house and a little cement house and my mom rent out something and then she made something. She ended up with a restaurant and bar, and a fast food and some apartments. When she sold that all of those buildings were on that land, that was a well developed land in the center of Belmopan's commercial zone."
"Fair trade no robbery took place there. No tax payers money was used and that transaction. Now Vaughn Gill and Positive Vibes this morning hollering out that it's my land. They are saying it's Nigel Petillo's land which is false again. I am trying to sue both of these entities right now. I don't know why Love FM wah bring it up like that."
