Guyanese sailor crushed to death at TCL port
(Trinidad Guardian) A Guyanese sailor was crushed to death yesterday while loading a vessel at the Trinidad Cement Ltd (TCL) port in Claxton Bay. Doodnauth Nateram, 44, of La Parfaite Harmonie, Guyana, died at the San Fernando General Hospital around 3.40 am from internal injuries. Nateram, who was employed with the ANS Shipping Company, had come aboard the general cargo vessel, Hein, for a shipment of cement. Police said around 2.40 am, excavator operator Ravi Mahadeo Persaud, 46, of Plantain Walk, West Bank Demerara, Guyana, was loading cement while Nateram stood along a railing aboard the vessel. While Persaud was turning the excavator, however, Nateram was accidentally pinned to the railing. Cpl Singh and officers of the St Margaret’s Police Station responded to the incident and went to the port along the Southern Main Road, Claxton Bay. Nateram was taken to the hospital by a TCL ambulance, where despite efforts to resuscitate him he died. His body was taken to the hospital mortuary where an autopsy is expected to be done today. Police were yet to get in contact with Nateram’s family back in Guyana up to late yesterday. Cpl Singh is continuing inquiries into the death, which has been so far classified as an accident.
Tuesday, April 3rd Liberia probing ExxonMobil deal
Liberian President George Weah has ordered an investigation into the allegation of bribery surrounding the purchase by ExxonMobil of an offshore oil block in 2013. Weah’s decision yesterday followed a report by anti-corruption watchdog, Global Witness charging that ExxonMobil pursued acquisition of the block even though it was aware that it had been shrouded in corruption. Following the publication of its report on March 29, Global Witness had called on the Liberian government to probe the deal. The report issued by Global Witness and Liberia’s decision to investigate will underline concerns here about the lack of transparency in the Guyana Government’s dealings with ExxonMobil – particularly the secret conclusion of a heavily criticised Production Sharing Agreement and the receipt of a US$18 million signing bonus which was hidden from the public. It will also highlight another example of Exxon’s involvement in transactions that are dubious and tainted by the spectre of corruption. According to the Liberian newspaper, New Dawn, the recently elected President has instructed the Minister of Justice Frank Musa Dean Jr. to probe the matter and submit a preliminary report to him within two weeks.
La Penitence vendor shot in head
A bandit yesterday shot a La Penitence Market vendor in his head after he tried to defend his wife who was being robbed. Doodnauth Danasri, 62, called ‘Hardat’ of Windsor Forest, West Coast Demerara and his wife Meena Danasri were attacked at about 5:30 pm, at their stall outside Twin’s Drug Store, Saffon Street. Four unmasked men, one of whom was armed with a suspected .38 revolver, carried out the attack. Doodnauth was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital where he was admitted. His condition is said to be critical. Recounting the ordeal last night, his wife told Stabroek News she was finishing off repacking vegetables when the men approached her. “I was on the stand packing the ochroes. By time I turn around one of them stand behind me. One of them had a shine gun and the other had a knife,” Meena explained. “So meh husband packing the bus and he come from behind the bus and turn and said ey wha you going and do that lady and I start holler. He then fired the shots at my husband,” she related. After the bandit fired the shots at her husband, the woman said she ran behind their bus in a bid to escape but the bandits “come behind me with the knife and gun and I hand them the money.
Police detain seven employees of Rose Hall store where guard was murdered
Nine persons are now in custody over the murder of a watchman including seven employees of the Rose Hall store he was guarding. On Saturday, the battered body of Muneshprem Ayasammy Monien, also known as ‘Watchie’, 53, was discovered. Monien was stationed at Sukhram’s General Store and Agro Chemicals known as ‘Fat lady’ located along the Rose Hall Town Public Road. Investigators are working on the theory that the robbery which led to the death of the security guard may have been an inside job. Commander of B Division, Lyndon Alves yesterday said that seven persons were arrested on Sunday, while two others were arrested yesterday. He related that investigators are working on two theories. He said that based on investigations so far, it is possible that an employee may have been involved since there were no signs of any forced entry to the building. It is also being suggested that a staff member purposely left a door to the building unlocked on Saturday afternoon. According to a source, investigators believe that an employee sought help from other persons to rob the business place.
Wednesday, April 4th Exxon cites new oil leads here
With seven major discoveries since 2015 and boasting deep-water seismic technologies ahead of their competitors, ExxonMobil has announced that it has identified new oil leads here and will continue to pursue them throughout this year. “Our proprietary seismic imaging technology helps us see opportunities in the subsurface that others cannot. We successfully used this technology on recent discoveries in the Black Sea and offshore Guyana,” the company told its shareholders in a 110 pages, 2017 Operating and Financial Review, which it released yesterday. The review also adds that the company has “identified additional leads, and exploration and development activities will continue throughout 2018.” Informing that it holds more than 11 million acres offshore Guyana, ExxonMobil played up the large volume of space that it has acquired here and pointed out that in the upstream, it was pursuing high impact new opportunities. “Equivalent to approximately 2,000 Gulf of Mexico lease blocks, our Guyana position spans 11.5 million acres. This sizable position, along with our six discoveries since 2015, provides significant growth potential in Guyana. This year, we acquired an additional 7,000 square kilometers of seismic data over the Stabroek and Kaieteur blocks,” the report states. While adding that it undertook some 30,000 km2 of 3D seismic data acquisition since July 2015, in an area large “enough to cover Belgium”.
Youth gets 14 years for killing Nonpareil pensioner
After admitting to killing his father-in-law, whom he bludgeoned to the head with an axe, Veeram Dias was yesterday sentenced to spend the next 14 years behind bars by Justice Sandil Kissoon. Dias was one of three persons charged with murdering Nonpareil pensioner Roger Manikam. A fourth person, Devon Brown, who had been
charged with being an accessory to the crime after he helped dispose of the body walked out the court a free man yesterday after the judge informed him that he would be granted remission for the two years he had been awaiting trial. Two years is the maximum penalty for the crime of being an accessory after the fact. Both Dias and Brown threw themselves at the mercy of the court yesterday morning, accepting responsibility for their respective roles in the crime. Dias pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder but admitted instead to the lesser count of manslaughter, accepting that he had unlawfully killed Manikam on April 2nd, 2016. For his part, Brown admitted that he, knowing that Dias, Nalinie Manikam and another person had murdered Roger, did on that day and thereafter, receive, relieve, comfort and assisted them. Nalinie is the daughter of the deceased.
Mason sentenced to 4 years, fined $6M after admitting to cocaine trafficking
A mason, who was charged yesterday alongside the son of accused cocaine trafficker Andre ‘Zipper’ Gomes and another man, has been sentenced to four years in jail and fined over $6 million after he admitted to trafficking almost five pounds of cocaine. Brian Fowler, 33, of Better Hope, East Coast Demerara, pleaded guilty to a charge which stated that he, along with Mark Gomes, 33, of Campbellville, and Mohamed Kadir, 37, of Goed Fortuin, trafficked 2.50 kilos, equivalent to 4.9 pounds, of cocaine, on March 29th at Sheriff Street. Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU) prosecutor Konyo Sandiford noted that on March 29th, at about 7.45 pm, CANU observed two motor vehicles, one driven by Kadir and the other driven by Gomes. She said that Kadir left his vehicle with a yellow Shell gas bottle and took it to PMM 5807, where Gomes was seated in the driver’s side. Fowler was observed as a passenger in Gomes’ vehicle when CANU ranks confronted them. According to Sandiford, a field test was then conducted on the only yellow bottle that was seen by ranks, in the front seat of Gomes’ vehicle, and it tested positive for cocaine. Further searches were done on the vehicles and a confrontation was held. As a result of his guilty plea, the magistrate sentenced Fowler to four years in prison and also fined him $6,075,000. While Fowler pleaded guilty, both Gomes and Kadir pleaded not guilty to the charge, which was read to them by Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan in Georgetown. Sandiford objected to bail being granted to Gomes and Kadir.
Thursday, April 5th
GPL urgently needs US$110M
Newly-appointed Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Chief Executive Officer, Albert Gordon has assured customers that eliminating blackouts was his number one priority and the utility company is pursuing access to US$110 million for the immediate upgrade of systems. “The biggest challenge now is keeping the lights on…so the first priority is to keep the lights on because the simplest of events on the distribution line…shuts the system down. Right now there are serious deficiencies in the system that we know need a certain amount of investment ...”, Gordon told attendees at a cocktail reception held to welcome him last evening at the Pegasus Hotel. “I have already identified a number of things that we need to do, we’ll need just over US$110 million to deal with urgent matters [such as] the re-configuration…and building some redundancy… just to get the systems in place,” he added. The former Director-General of the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) of Jamaica was appointed GPL’s CEO last month on a three-year contract. Gordon lamented the frequent shutdowns of GPL’s distribution systems saying that it needs to be urgently looked into. He pointed out that from records he has seen, for last year alone, GPL had 25 entire system shutdowns, something he considers “very unusual” given that in other places a single occurrence would be cause for concern. “The GPL system is evolving from a bunch of smaller systems that are being integrated and right now there are serious deficiencies in the system that we need to address,” he said.
Rose Hall store employee confesses to robbery which left security guard dead
After days of investigative work and grilling of eleven suspects, one person, an employee yesterday confessed to the police that he was involved in the robbery at the store in Rose Hall Town, during the course of which the security guard was murdered. Stabroek News was told last evening that the lad in his confession had implicated another suspect, who is also in custody. On Saturday, the battered body of Muneshprem Ayasammy Monien, also known as ‘Watchie’, 53, was discovered. He had sustained a slit on his throat, a chop wound on his head, two broken legs and other injuries about his body. Commander of B Division, Lyndon Alves, last evening confirmed the confession to this newspaper, as he explained that the police at the time were “tying up loose ends” since they had been given a “positive lead” from the suspect. He stated that the person who confessed, had “implicated another person in custody”. On Monday, the police had a total of nine persons in custody, seven of whom were employees at the store. However, on Tuesday, two more persons were arrested, and it was only yesterday that one of the suspects, a resident of Guava Bush, Albion, Corentyne, who had started working at the store late last year, broke his silence to investigators. According to the commander, the other persons are likely to remain in custody, as investigators were granted an extension.
Police appeared to have abandoned probe of Lindo Creek murders
Relatives of the victims of the Lindo Creek massacre were “outraged” that the Guyana Police Force (GPF) appeared to have more interest in identifying the bodies, than conducting an actual investigation, attorney Nigel Hughes testified yesterday. Hughes, who represents the relatives of the eight miners murdered at a Lindo Creek mining camp in 2008, appeared yesterday before the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) set up by the government to investigate their deaths, where he stated that it appeared that the police had “abandoned” the investigation. Since the discovery of the remains of Cecil Arokium, Dax Arokium, Horace Drakes, Bonny Harry, Lancelot Lee, Compton Speirs, Nigel Torres and Clifton Wong by owner of the mining camp Leonard Arokium on June 21st, 2008, there have been claims by family members that the Joint Services had a hand in the deaths of the men. Aside from Hughes’ observation that the former Commissioner of Police Henry Greene appeared to have been delaying the investigation, other major pieces of evidence that came out of yesterday’s proceedings was a suggestion that the “black clothes police” had some involvement in the crime; that the now deceased Uree Varswyck was a part of the Joint Services team that went into Lindo Creek; and that the miners may have been killed earlier than had been previously reported. It was previously reported that earlier that month, on June 6th, a team of Joint Services ranks had ventured into Christmas Falls, where a few days prior there had been a confrontation between ranks and members of the Fine Man gang. During that confrontation, one of the gang members, Otis Fifee, called ‘Mud Up,’ was killed. Hughes related that in September 2008, after several correspondences had been exchanged between himself and Greene, he had had cause to write to the Commissioner highlighting the concerns of the family members.
Friday, April 6th
Islamic Development Bank in US$900M aid plan for Guyana
Exemplifying its financial clout, the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) is to make US$900 million available to Guyana for the period 2018 to 2020 and covering a wide range of development areas. This was disclosed in speech made by Finance Minister Winston Jordan at a bank meeting in Tunis, Tunisia. In his speech, Jordan said “The Bank fielded a programming mission, in December 2017,where a work programme for the threeyear period, 2018-2020, was formalized. Financing and technical assistance, of about US$900 million, will be directed to key development areas, including economic infrastructure, rural development, human development and trade and competitiveness”.
Security forces taking steps to assure safety of citizens on Cuyuni – Harmon
According to Minister of State Joseph Harmon, following reports of attacks by armed gangs (Sindicatos), Guyana’s security forces are taking measures to assure citizens operating in the Cuyuni River that they are safe. He stressed that the forces have sufficient resources at their disposal but are currently being stretched by having to investigate nuisance reports. Harmon announced at yesterday’s Post-Cabinet press briefing that the Parliamentary Oversight Committee on the Security Sector, led by Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan visited several border communities in Region One (BarimaWaini). He explained that this visit was preceded by President David Granger’s own trip to the area during which he outlined a frontier villages policy. Harmon told reporters that Cabinet noted that the Guyana Defence Force and the Guyana Police Force had mounted highlevel, high-ranking visits to the area in an approach which includes citizens, the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association and the Ministry of Natural Resources’ core of wardens in an attempt to address the security situation which has been widely reported. He stressed that this high-level team which is in the area has had specific briefings from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs “that basically deals with matters in relation to the border and the need for them to exercise caution in dealing with these matters.” The Minister noted that in some cases incident reports are made to media operatives before the security forces which hampers their ability to respond appropriately.
PM Nagamootoo returns
A prayer breakfast yesterday morning brought together President David Granger, several ministers of government and well-wishers to welcome home Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo who returned after recuperating in the United States following successful heart bypass surgery. PM Nagamootoo, accompanied by his wife, Sita Nagamootoo and his eldest daughter, Maria Nagamootoo, arrived at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) at 7.10 am yesterday, according to the Department of Public Information (DPI). Hosted at the PM’s residence, the prayer breakfast was attended by President David Granger, First Lady Sandra Granger, Minister of Social Protection, Amna Ally, Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan and Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman, family, and friends. The government ministers, all expressed pleasure at the PM’s return and recommitted to ensuring that his health and well-being are a top priority for the government. Ally said, according to DPI, “Prime Minister, I want to say to you, that you have to take it one day at a time, we love you, we treasure you and we want to have you for a long, long time.”