Female student detained over UG bomb threats
A female student of the University of Guyana has been arrested and is being investigated in relation to two bomb threats at the institution last week.
The incident has caused UG to close its doors this week, pending the introduction of enhanced security. According to officials, the student has been identified as Diane Jaffarally, 27.
She was initially incorrectly identified as the daughter of Faizal Jaffarally, the Region 5 Campaign Manager for the People’s Progressive Party and former parliamentarian. According to an upset Jaffarally, Diane is his niece, not his daughter. He disclosed that she was picked up at UG on Thursday and kept overnight in police custody. Police are saying that her phone was used to make the call. “The report of the stateowned media says, incorrectly, it is my daughter. It is meant to embarrass me and my children who both live overseas.”
The woman is said to be an employee at a prominent city advertising company. According to Latchmie Rahamat, attorney-at-law for the woman, her client has denied the allegations put to her, that she had made any of the bomb threat calls.
Rahamat said that she was working to get her client on bail.
There is also a determination to be made what the offence really was.
“She has completely denied the calls…denied the allegation…” Police can hold a suspect for 72 hours and seek additional time, if they feel the need. Family members took to social media to claim that woman’s phone was hacked.
The police said Thursday that while initial security checks at UG found nothing harmless, it appears the threats were carried out by individuals who seem bent on disrupting the peace.
Bomb threats were made against the tertiary institution on two consecutive days this week, which forced the institution to announce on Thursday that it was postponing its operations until Monday.
UG said that the closure of the campus will enable the Administration, staff and student leaders to review the situation and enhance preventive and responsive measures for such threats. It is believed that the bomb threat situation is linked to similar threats made at a few city secondary schools, including the privatelyoperated School of the Nations, whose Director was recently shot multiple times by an assailant said to be a former student.
In a statement on Thursday, the Guyana Police Force said, “Our investigations have revealed so far that students either by themselves or with other persons decided to be mischievous, and endeavored to disrupt the existing peace and calm in society and specifically in the education sector.” The Crime Chief and a team of officers on Wednesday evening met with UG Vice Chancellor, Professor Ivelaw Griffith, as well as other senior functionaries including the Public Relations Officer, Ms. Paulette Paul, where the prevailing situation was assessed.
(Kaieteur News)