Nigel Petillo: “Uno Left Mi Ma Lone!”

Grassroots activist Nigel Petillo is receiving public criticism after it was revealed that his mother, Naomi Petillo, bought a 0.6-acre lot on Forest Drive in Belmopan from RECONDEV for $78,000 and later sold it to Ceiba Grove LLP. for hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Lands Department valued the land at $548,000

Naomi Petillo received the title to the land in March 2022.

Nigel had recently come out against the government’s decision to purchase a fifteen-acre tract of land to be used as the site for the controversial university hospital.

Two leaked documents reveal that a parcel of land, originally purchased from the Reconstruction and Development Corporation (RECONDEV) in July 2018, is now being sold to the Government of Belize for a staggering amount. Businessman Kenny Zheng and Annie Hong Zu acquired the land for $450,000. Now, that same property is being sold to the Ministry of Natural Resources for an astonishing $7 million.

Petillo told News Five, “I can’t speak on my mother’s transaction. My name is no where on that transactions.” He stressed that it was a private transaction. “This is not a government tax payers transaction. This has nothing to do with government money.”

He ended, “Bwai uno left mi ma lone.”