PN MP Chris Said seeks answers from government on Nadur land registration

Nationalist Party MP Chris Said has filed a series of parliamentary questions about the recent registration of two large plots of land in Nadur that has dispossessed scores of residents from their home.

Dozens of Nadur residents living in the Gozitan village’s Triq il-Knisja and other central parts have been approached by lawyers claiming their houses do not belong to them.

The lawyers, acting for the heirs of the late Richard Stagno Navarra, have told the residents their homes and properties are being claimed on the basis of documents dating back to the 1600s, a time when most of these properties did not even exist.

On Thursday morning, the lawyer for Sant'Antonio delli Navarra estate said in a statement that Nadur lands were registered on the strength of a legal title.

Said, the PN's spokesperson for Gozo, wrote in a Facebook post that he was approached by dozens of Nadur residents to ask about the issue, concerned that they would be losing their homes.

"I asked for all correspondence between persons involved and the Lands Registry and for who asked that these areas be included in the registration area," the PN MP said on Thursday.

Said claimed that he met with Parliamentary Secretary for Citizenship and Communities Alex Muscat, and sent questions to Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri, under whose remit the Lands Authority falls, to investigate the situation.

"So far, I haven't been met with a response," he wrote, adding that a Nadur local council public meeting would be held on Saturday and he would be attending.

"Who submitted the application so that these lands be registered in his name? How many days or hours passed from when the submission took place to when the Registrar issued the approval certificate? Did the Registrar ask for additional information? If so, why not ask for such information before the approval?" Said wrote, adding that these questions were tabled in Parliament. 

Said argued that if there was an error somewhere in the process, this should be rectified immediately and an explanation given.