Fly Jamaica plane crash lands at CJIA -no fatalities
A Fly Jamaica plane destined for Toronto, Canada crash-landed at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) at Timehri early yesterday morning, leaving the crew and passengers shaken but without any confirmed serious injuries. Preliminary investigations have found that Fly Jamaica’s Boeing 757 aircraft encountered hydraulic issues shortly after takeoff. In a brief statement, Fly Jamaica Airways Chairman Captain Ronald Reece said the 118 passengers and 8 crewmembers were safe. “We are providing local assistance and will release further information as soon as it is available,” the statement added. Minister of Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson said the Fly Jamaica flight OJ 257, which had been en route to Toronto, Canada had taken off from the CJIA at 2.10 am. However, at 2.21 am, the pilot and copilot, both of whom are Jamaican, indicated that there were some hydraulic problems and requested permission to return. It was noted that permission was granted and after spending an estimated 43 minutes in the air they were able to land the plane. The aircraft, however, overshot the open runway and veered to a closed section, resulting in damage to the right wing and propeller. The plane was immediate evacuated afterward.
‘It was just crazy’ – Fly Jamaica passenger recounts crash landing
“Everyone was screaming, cursing, you name it. They were calling God and I don’t know who else they were calling on, it was just crazy,” passenger Invor Bedessee, who was set to return home to Canada, recalled yesterday after the crash landing of his Fly Jamaica flight at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) Timehri hours earlier. The flight, OJ 256, which was bound for Toronto, Canada, experienced “hydraulic issues” while still in Guyana’s airspace. As a result, the captain decided to turn around and land back at CJIA but the plane careened off of the runway. Bedessee told Stabroek News in an interview that the flight was initially delayed for over 45 minutes after the plane encountered an issue with one of its doors. “They couldn’t close it and so after five minutes they called in maintenance and spent about 40 minutes to fix the problem. They took that part out, changed this part out, while everyone was sitting, waiting. After about 45 minutes, they finally got the door fixed and that’s how we got delayed,” Bedessee recalled.
Fourteen firemen questioned over theft from Fly Jamaica plane
Fourteen firefighters were questioned by police yesterday amid claims that they stole personal items belonging to the crew and passengers of the Fly Jamaica aircraft that crash-landed yesterday at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri. This was confirmed by both Divisional Commander Calvin Chapman and Fire Chief Marlon Gentle. While Chapman only confirmed that the officers were being questioned, Gentle explained that 14 of his officers both those who were on duty and those who showed up at the scene to offer assistance were being questioned. Gentle further said that having received a report of stolen property, one officer came forward with some of the stolen items which prompted further investigations. “This is a severe breach of all regulations and SOPs of the Fire Service and clear case of dishonesty. This would not be condoned at any time by the Fire Service; there will be a full investigation and the persons will face the severity of the law to send a clear message because a clear message must be sent,” the Fire Chief said. “It is very depressing for this to happen to the fire service,” he added.
Sunday, November 11th Integrity body names 87 officials who failed to declare assets
The Integrity Commission yesterday began identifying public officials who failed to submit declarations of their assets and liabilities by the deadline and its Chairman Kumar Doraisami yesterday said that legal action will be taken against those who fail to take corrective action and comply with their obligations. The Office of the Integrity Commission published a full page notice in the Saturday edition of the Guyana Chronicle, listing 87 persons in public life who have failed to submit their declarations, pursuant to Section 19 of the Integrity Commission Act as at November 1st, 2018, and listed among the defaulters were 41 Members of Parliament (MPs), including senior government ministers, and opposition members. According to the ad, the government MPs who are yet to submit are Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge, Public Service Minister Rupert Roopnaraine, Communities Minister Ronald Bulkan, Social Cohesion Minister Dr. George Norton, Public Health Minister Volda Lawrence, Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson, Minister of State Joseph Harmon, Citizenship Minister Winston Felix, Education Minister Nicolette Henry, Minister within the Ministry of Social Protection Keith Scott, Minister within the Ministry of Public Infrastructure Annette Ferguson, Minister within the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs Valarie Garrido-Lowe, Minister within the Ministry of Public Health Karen Cummings, Minister within the Ministry of Natural Resources Simona Broomes, Minister within the Ministry of Communities Valarie Patterson, Jennifer Wade, Rajcoomarie Bancroft, John Adams, Richard Allen, Michael Carrington, Jermaine Figueira, Charrandass Persaud, Haimraj Rajkumar and Audwin Rutherford.
Monday, November 12th President’s return from Cuba delayed
While President David Granger was scheduled to return to Guyana yesterday in time to vote in today’s Local Government Elections, his office has confirmed that he will not be here and sources say that he has not been given the “okay to travel” by doctors in Cuba. “The president will not be back in time for Local Government Elections,” Deputy Director of Press Affairs at the Ministry of the Presidency (MotP), Ariana Gordon told Stabroek News yesterday. There was no word on when he would be returning or update on his medical condition but Minister of State Joseph Harmon said that government would tomorrow be issuing a further statement. When asked by Stabroek News on Friday, Harmon had told this newspaper that he was not aware that the President would not be returning yesterday, since according to him “his ticket is scheduled for the 11th and nothing has changed, as far as I am aware.”
Fly Jamaica crash: ‘It’s a miracle we survived’ –passenger
“It’s a miracle that we survived. Thank you God”, were the words of Davanan Sukhram, one of the passengers aboard the Fly Jamaica flight which crash-landed at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri last Friday. He is eagerly waiting to return to Canada. Recollecting the events of that early morning, Sukhram, 55, yesterday stated that around 2 am on the day, he and other passengers boarded the Fly Jamaica flight. “There was a problem with the plane before it took off”, he said, adding that some time was spent in an attempt to fix the issue. Sukhram recalled hearing a grinding noise while the plane was on the runway but when the plane took off he noted that everything was okay. Having spent about 20 to 25 minutes in the air, Sukhram said that the passengers were told that the plane was going to turn around. On their way back to CJIA he stated that the plane was going in head up and tail down. When the plane finally touched the runway, Sukhram described its landing as a bumper ball, bouncing a lot.
Guyana’s wealth fund should not be seen as cash cow
A sovereign wealth fund should only be used for rainy day planning and not to be used to supplement recurring expenditure as was done recently in Trinidad and Tobago says T&T’s former prime minister and Leader of the Opposition, Kamla Persad-Bissessar. “I do not recommend, from what I have seen in Trinidad and Tobago, that any sovereign wealth fund (SWF) that you set up, be used to supplement recurring expenditure.” Guyana’s proposed sovereign wealth fund is called the Natural Resources Fund. Addressing the manufacturing sector and invitees at the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association’s annual presentation award dinner on Thursday evening, she said, “Your SWF has to be seen as an insurance policy. It should not be seen as a cash cow that anytime you have a financing deficit in your budget that you would dip into it and come back out. It does not work like that. It should only work in special circumstances.” She noted that for the first time since T&T’s sovereign wealth fund – known as the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund (HSF) – was set up, the current administration “has seen it fit, twice, to raid the HSF for the purpose of recurrent expenditure.”
Tuesday, November 13th Elections smooth – GECOM
Early results from yesterday’s Local Government Elections show poor returns for the Alliance For Change (AFC) in Georgetown and in the hotly contested Corentyne village of Whim. APNU and the opposition PPP/C appeared to be holding their own in their traditional strongholds while the latter has made inroads in the biggest municipality, Georgetown.If the poor results for the AFC are borne out across the country, there may be severe repercussions for it in terms of its relations with coalition partner APNU. The two had been unable to reach an accord on the Local Government Elections and the AFC put a brave face on in deciding to contest on its own. According to the Guyana Elections Com-mission (GECOM) yesterday’s Local Government Election (LGE) was “a very efficient operation”. Speaking with Stabroek News at the close of poll Public Relations Officer Yolanda Ward stated that the polling day staff had delivered a smoothly run elections so far and expressed the hope that preliminary results would be available by 9 pm. As of midnight results were released for the municipality of Lethem and several Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) in Essequibo and Berbice. In Georgetown the voter turnout appeared to be significantly less that the 37.66% which cast their ballots in 2016.
Sixteen-year-old’s twins die after delivery at West Demerara hospital
A 16-year-old mother is still in grief after her twins died shortly after delivery at the West Demerara Regional Hospital (WDRH) on Saturday and she blames it on negligence. The baby boys were born prematurely to Preya Eshwar of Parika, East Bank Essequibo around 11.30 am and they both died shortly after. Her mother, Sharmela Beni told Stabroek News that her daughter started having abdominal pain around 5:30 am on Saturday and they took her to the Leonora Diagnostic Centre. A doctor there told her that Eshwar had an infection and referred her to the WDRH. They were advised to take her to the maternity ward. But the nurses from the ward sent them down to the emergency room where they were again told that she had an infection and she had to have an “abortion.” They then administered “saline and a blue tablet” and the pain increased. Around 10:30 am they sent her back to the maternity ward and her father pushed her in the wheelchair, as there was no porter available. They waited in the “hallway” for about half an hour before the nurses took her to the ward. According to the mother, they also took another half hour asking her daughter questions before finally attending to her. Beni said too that the first baby arrived by foot and that from the hallway they could hear her daughter screaming in pain. Preya Eshwar
Unions say UG heading for crisis
Unions at the University of Guyana (UG) yesterday charged that the administration has refused to engage
with them on key issues and that this has brought the institution to the brink of another crisis. In recent years, relations between the UG administration and the University of Guyana Workers Union (UGWU) and the University of Guyana Senior Staff Association (UGSSA) have been tense as the two sides have battled over wages, basic conditions at UG and the restructuring of the institution. The tension was evident in the joint press release that came from the unions yesterday just two days after UG’s annual convocation. They said that they have been attempting to negotiate with the UG administration on a range of matters since February 2018. They said that these negotiations have gone nowhere. Furthermore, the unions say they are deeply concerned about the state of the University’s finances, and about the administration’s violations of the University’s statutes and procedures.
Wednesday, November 14th APNU clinches 21 city seats
Following Monday’s Local Government Elections (LGE) the capital city of Georgetown will remain under the control of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) which has secured 21 of its 30 seats but the opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic has significantly increased its position at the council earning a total of seven seats at the Horseshoe table. APNU’s national coalition partner the Alliance for Change (AFC) contesting on its own managed to secure two seats. According to the official results released by Returning Officer Duarte Hetsberger, a total of 28,868 or 28.3% of the 119,374 eligible electors in the city chose to exercise their franchise. Of that number 432 ballots were rejected and 28,436 votes counted in the Proportional Representation (PR) aspect of the election. This number is significantly less than the 41,924 of the then 112,364 registered electors, some 37.3% who voted in 2016. This year APNU once again secured the majority of 18,127 votes with the PPP/C managing 7,050 while the AFC secured 3,059. The United Republican Party was awarded 106 votes while 94 electors voted for the Georgetown National Service Party.
CCJ declares cross-dressing law unconstitutional
Overturning judgments of the local courts, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) yesterday ruled in favour of a group of Guyanese transgender women that the law prohibiting cross-dressing violates their freedom of expression and said it should be struck from the laws of Guyana. Declaring Section 153 (1) (XLVII) of the Summary Jurisdiction (Offences) Act to be unconstitutional, the court said the law was from a different time and no longer served any legitimate purpose in Guyana. In its action against the state, the appellants—Quincy McEwan, known as Gulliver, Seon Clarke, known as Angel Clarke, Joseph Fraser, also known as Peaches Fraser, and Seyon Persaud, known as Isabella Persaud—had argued that the law discriminated against them. Their main contention had been that Section 153 (1) (XLVII), which prohibits cross dressing “for an improper purpose,” was so vague that it does not define what constitutes an “improper purpose,” which ultimately leads to uncertainty. That section makes every man who appears in “female attire” and every woman who appears in “male attire,” in any public way or public place “for any improper purpose,” liable to a fine of not less than $7,500 or more than $10,000.
Toshaos Council gets lease to Sophia land for secretariat
The Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GL&SC) has handed over a lease to the National Toshaos Council (NTC) for a plot of land in Sophia, Georgetown, for the construction of a permanent secretariat. The lease to the land is in keeping with a request made by the Indigenous leaders during the 2016 NTC conference. Commissioner and Chief Executive of the GL&SC Trevor Benn presented the lease on Tuesday to Chairman of the NTC Nicholas Fredericks in the presence of Minister in the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs (MoIPA) Valerie Garrido-Lowe and other executive members of the NTC at the NTC Secretariat in Hadfield Street, Georgetown. Benn noted that the GL&SC had expedited the request and the lease was ready for handing over since mid-year. Fredericks told Stabroek News that the lease was not uplifted earlier because of a previous decision that had been taken by the previous council and the current council had to overturn the previous decision, which was done collectively on Monday at the meeting of the NTC.
Thursday, November 15th President Granger diagnosed with cancer
President David Granger has been diagnosed with cancer – Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma – in Cuba and a second phase of treatment began yesterday, according to a statement from Guyana’s Ambassador in Havana, Halim Majeed. “Subsequent to a series of medical tests, the President was diagnosed as suffering from Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and was placed in the Centro de Investigaciones Medico Quirurgicas (CIMEQ) on Thursday, November 1, where he underwent a surgical procedure,” Majeed said. “On Tuesday, November 6, His Excellency, the President, was discharged from CIMEQ and returned to his official accommodation. The President’s medical personnel has now begun the second phase of treatment today, Wednesday, November 14, 2018, and he is likely to be placed in CIMEQ for a short period of two to three days,” it added. Doctors expect him to make a full recovery after treatment, the statement said. The statement came after days of questions about the state of the President’s health.
Tower Suites owner was held by US after elaborate operation
A US arrest warrant was out for Guyanese businessman Shervington Lovell since August following months of investigation by the US DEA which entailed him meeting with confidential sources (CSs) in Georgetown and Jamaica as they allegedly planned a cocaine shipment to the Netherlands. According to US court documents seen by Stabroek News, Lovell, a principal in Tower Suites in Georgetown, allegedly sought help on how to launder money from the Netherlands as while he had reportedly done so from the US and Canada it was a first for the European country. It was following the interception of a cocaine-laden vessel, 350 miles off Diamond Valley, Barbados on July 27th 2018 that a sealed US arrest warrant was issued for Lovell. He and his co-conspirators (CCs) were allegedly hoping to traffic the 624 kilogrammes of cocaine to the Netherlands via the Azores. Lovell, also called ‘Big Head,’ and Colombian, Ricardo Ramirez were arrested along with a Surinamese national on October 25th at the Norman Manley International Airport in Jamaica on drug trafficking charges. It is not clear if Lovell, who also owns the Leisure Inn Hotel in New Amsterdam, has already been extradited to the US but he has now been charged with one count of conspiracy to Violate Maritime Drug Enforcement Law. He has been charged along with David Cardona-Cardona, JeanClaude Okongo Landji, Jibril Adamu, Agremiro ZapataCastro and Steven Antonius. While Lovell faces one charge, his co-accused face several other charges which include distributing cocaine in the US using an aircraft and possession of a firearm.
Man remanded over murder of Kuru Kururu legal clerk
A man was yesterday remanded to prison by a city court, after being charged with the murder of a Kuru Kururu legal clerk. The charge alleged that Travis Evans, between July 31 and August 2, at Kuru Kururu, Linden-Soesdyke Highway, in the company of others, murdered Gregory Frank during the course or furtherance of a robbery. Evans was not required to plead to the indictable charge. Magistrate Judy Latchman at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court, remanded the man to prison and adjourned the matter until November 27. Previous reports stated that Frank, 46, a legal clerk of Lot 686 Kuru Kururu, Soesdyke-Linden Highway, was found dead in a pool of blood in his home. It was suspected that he may have been killed during a burglary. A post-mortem examination later revealed that the man died from asphyxiation due to a compression injury to the neck along with blunt trauma to the head.
Friday, November 16th Jagdeo moving no-confidence motion against gov’t
The opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has laid a no-confidence motion in the National Assembly against the APNU+AFC administration, which it says is damaging the country’s future prospects. Leader of the Opposition Bharrat Jagdeo told a press conference yesterday that the motion, in his name, calls for a declaration of no-confidence in the David Granger government. “Clearly people are unhappy with the direction of the country; [with the] policies and practice of government…. Govern-ment has no vision. We are drifting, they have absolutely no plan for Guyana. They are using up our money on frivolous things, such as celebrations, food and rentals [and] they are borrowing a lot. They are damaging our prospects for the future,” Jagdeo said, while noting that the worse that can happen is that government uses its one-seat majority to defeat the motion. Although unlikely as government has a majority, if the motion is passed it would trigger the holding of new general elections within 90 days. “Whether we win the motion or not, the country will benefit because we believe we’ll get a chance once again to point out what the electorate said to them when they rejected them at these polls that their policies are all wrong and damaging our prospects for the future and the wellbeing of all our people across Guyana,” he stressed, while referring to the PPP/C’s showing at the just-concluded local government elections. Jagdeo reminded that in 2014, the then opposition Alliance For Change (AFC), with support from A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), had brought a no-confidence motion against the Donald Ramotar-led PPP/C administration.
APNU+AFC leaders reaffirm coalition unity
The leadership of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC) met last evening to discuss a number of matters and they said that their coalition remains united and strong. “The leaders of the two parties jointly reaffirm that the Coalition remains united and strong. Further the leadership celebrated the triumph of democracy in the efficient and successful holding of Local Government Elections, the second under the Coalition Government since it came to office in 2015. The leadership congratulates GECOM for the smooth and efficient manner in which these elections were held and acknowledged that GECOM has demonstrated its capacity to hold free, fair and credible elections”, a joint APNU+AFC release said. Present at the meeting were Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, Vice Presidents Carl Greenidge and Khemraj Ramjattan, PNCR Chairperson and Minister of Public Health Volda Lawrence, PNCR General Secretary and Minister of Social Protection Amna Ally, APNU Chairman and Minister of State Joseph Harmon and AFC executive member and Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson.
Pregnant cop charged with throwing acid on boyfriend
A pregnant police constable was yesterday charged with dousing her boyfriend with acid. Cassandra Boucher, 30, appeared before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan, who read a charge of unlawful wounding to her. She was subsequently granted bail after she denied the charge. It is alleged that on November 7th, at Camp Street and North Road, Georgetown, Boucher unlawfully and maliciously wounded Anthony Paul, with intent to maim, disfigure, disable or cause grievous bodily harm. Boucher, a mother of three of Lot 55 School Street, Albouystown, denied the charge. The Chief Magistrate subsequently granted the accused her release on $300,000 bail and ordered that she lodge her passport with the clerk of courts, report to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) every Monday and Friday and stay 50 feet away from Paul until the completion of the trial. The matter was then adjourned until November 23rd, when it is expected to be heard by Magistrate Leron Daly.