Attorney-at-law and Pan Africanist Bert Samuels says if the treaty signed between the maroons and the British government still stands, the maroons will have a good case in proving that the laws governing their lands are different from that of Jamaica.
His comments follow claims by Chief of the Accompong Maroons Richard Currie that members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, JCF have been destroying their crops on a farm in St. Elizabeth.
Head of the Constabulary’s Corporate Communications Unit, Senior Superintendent Stephanie Lindsay confirmed that members of the narcotics division conducted an operation and were removing ganja plants.
She says claims by some persons that the police have no jurisdiction over maroon lands are false.
In response, Mr. Samuels says the lands were granted to the maroons by the former English colonizers and as a result stipulates that they are not under Jamaican rule.
Mr. Samuels says the maroons are seemingly opposing the raiding of maroons lands used for the cultivation of cannabis by the police, on the terms of having full ownership of those lands.
