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Dozens of gang members, activists, lawyers and politicians have flocked to the beachfront properties in Maketu in the Bay of Plenty, vowing to stop the eviction of the owner of the Mongrel Mob.
Portaloos was being trucked to the site on Friday afternoon and those present were preparing for the long haul, saying he could become “another Ihumātao”.
Christel Yardley / Stuff
A family member raises a flag over the disputed property in Maketu.
Vision NZ leader Hannah Tamaki, her husband Brian, from Destiny Church, activist Tame Iti and actor Manu Bennett were among the site visitors.
Three contiguous properties belonging to Mongrel Mob member Valentine “Pop” Nicholas have been seized by the Crown under the proceeds of crime legislation. An eviction notice gave Nicholas until Friday to leave.
But he and his followers say it is inherited land and they will not move.
Police said they were aware of the situation but were not at the scene.
A spokesperson for the Official Assignee confirmed that there was a High Court forfeiture order and that steps were being taken to sell the properties at 631, 633 and 634 Maketu Rd.
Nicholas has been fighting confiscation in court for several years. He was found not guilty of the cannabis supply charges in 2015, but police used the Criminal Assets (Recovery) Act to seize properties and assets worth more than $ 1 million.
Nicolas said Stuff it was a family problem, not a half-breed. His brother, Willie Nicholas, said the family did not want the dispute to be considered gang related.
Christel Yardley / Stuff
Valentine Nicholas does a hongi with a follower.
“Pop could have had a couple hundred gangsters here if he wanted to, but he doesn’t want that.”
Hannah Tamaki, who is running for the Waiariki seat, said that “an injustice has started here.
“It is familiar land. Of course it is a privileged and beautiful position. . . I think they [the Crown] They want to set an example of this so that they can continue to do so, but the Maori will no longer allow this to happen.
“They will occupy and if it is like Ihumātao, so be it.”
Christel Yardley / Stuff
Hannah Tamaki on Maketu’s property.
Tamaki said that it was wrong that someone who had been found innocent of crimes could lose the inherited land.
“To try to punish someone and their whanau and take something that is generationally theirs, to me I can’t see how they can even imagine in their wildest dreams how it’s okay.
“Are we going to go back in history and do what we have done before: land in the Maori? From now on we have to say ‘no, we are not going to allow that anymore.’
A member of whanau posted on Facebook that it was an “illegal confiscation of Maori whenua”. Nicholas had attempted to have the land transferred to a Maori title under the Treaty.
Christel Yardley / Stuff
Supporters gather in the gym at Valentine Nicholas’ home.
“The Crown claims that this land is under general title, but it has been a deliberate and strategic move on their part to keep it this way rather than allowing the transfer of this land to Maori whenua,” the publication said.
Stuff has previously reported that an iwi police liaison officer who wrote an opinion on the land that was later used in Nicholas’s appeal had been penalized for doing so.
