Six weeks after discharging his firearm and allegedly gun-butting a teenager during a brawl at an East Coast Deme-rara bar, Local Government Minister Kellawan Lall has issued a statement saying among other things that he was first attacked and attempted to make a citizen’s arrest.
He also attacked this newspaper, saying that he had been slandered and was seeking legal advice. Lall’s conduct has been condemned by individuals and groups and he has also been strongly reprimanded by his party, the PPP.
In the statement on Monday, released only to the Guyana Chronicle and the Kaieteur News, Lall said that a series of articles published by Stabroek News on the incident were aimed at causing injury to “my reputation, character and bring the public offices which I hold into indignity, disrespect, odium and ridicule.”
Lall had an altercation with 19-year-old Joseph Dood-nauth at a bar on November 18 last year over the teenager’s aunt, during which time he fired his gun and allegedly hit the teen in the forehead. He had previously refused to comment on the issue, but finally issued a statement on Monday amid public condemnation of his behaviour.
According to the statement in the Guyana Chronicle, Lall said that on the evening in question, he was taking a friend home and they stopped some distance from a bar. He said he was near his vehicle when two cousins of his friend joined them. According to him, after a few minutes, his friend and one of the cousins got involved in a discussion, which he noticed was getting heated and he innocently intervened. “It turned out that the cousin got angry with me for getting involved in a family matter. He then attacked me and assaulted me and left the scene,” Lall’s statement said.
He added that the police were contacted and shortly afterwards, a few uniformed policemen arrived on the scene. According to the minister, he told the police of the incident and they took a description of the person who had assaulted him and left. He said he also left with his friend for his home to change his bloodstained shirt, adding that he had been at that scene for just a few minutes when the incident occurred.
Lall said Doodnauth lived in Venezuela and was visiting Guyana and staying at his friend’s home. He said he had met the teenager on a few occasions and they were on friendly terms.
“Doodnauth was apparently at a barbeque for some time before I arrived,” the minister said.
He continued that after spending a couple of hours at his residence, his friend asked to be taken home. He said when they arrived near the gate of his friend’s home, he saw Doodnauth and the other cousin. “I came out of the vehicle and tried to arrest this person who had just assaulted a minister and was being sought by the police. There was a confrontation during which I fired a single shot in the air,” Lall said.
Wicked
He said the man still did not want to go with him to the police station and ran into his yard. The minister said he left for home and learnt soon afterwards that the man was arrested. Lall said that apart from him three other persons gave statements to the police – his friend, who was with him, Doodnauth and the other cousin. “I am not aware of what they told the police. I understand from the media that Doodnauth does not want to take this matter further,” the minister said.
He also charged that Stabroek News concluded that there was some out of court settlement and “even suggested that I must have paid him off. This is a wicked piece of journalism. I was the person who was assaulted and this matter was reported to the police.”
He said he still believed that under the circumstances, the right course of action was for the police to investigate the matter. He said in the meantime he will seek “legal advice to deal with the libels and slanders published by Stabroek News” aimed at causing injury to his reputation. Referring to a Stabroek News editorial on December 31, captioned, ‘Decency and the rule of law’, Lall said he read it with grave concern, as it was this newspaper which seemed bent on subverting the rule of law by carrying out a trial of him in its columns almost on a daily basis and being the sole judge, jury and executioner. “The matter referred to has been reported to the police. I think that the correct thing to do is to await the findings of the police. I have submitted myself to the proper and competent authorities to determine the matter. SN does not seem to have any respect (for) the authorities,” Lall said.
“Secondly, as regards decency, SN has been peddling a saucy and sexed-up story perhaps to get an edge over its competitors or perhaps it is believed that I can be traded for some advertisements.”
He said not for one moment did this newspaper consider the possibility that its story, in the absence of other information, was a concoction. He said this newspaper had done absolutely nothing to investigate the matter to get near to the truth and the fact that he had not said anything was irrelevant.
Any newspaper with credibility would have sought some independent source(s) to bolster its story, Lall said. He added that if in fact a minister of government behaved in the manner described by SN, i.e., was involved in a brawl over a woman, beat up a youngster, ran him down with his vehicle, fired several shots at the person or in the air, then there must be some eyewitnesses to these horrendous events. “There must be a bar at which these things happened. The fact is that is a figment of someone’s wild imagination. The fact that Stabroek News has been unable to unearth a single eyewitness to support [its] malicious campaign against me tells a whole other story.”
Lall said as regards information purportedly given to SN by Doodnauth, the teenager related that one day two persons went to his gate and said they were from the Ministry of Home Affairs and that they were following up on a matter reported to the police. He said Doodnauth was shocked to see a story in SN the following day as if he had given an interview to that paper. He said the teenager was also shocked to see statements attributed to him, which were gross fabrications. Lall said Doodnauth gave a signed statement to the police as far as he was aware, which was the only document an investigation can rely on.
He said SN, which speaks about the rule of law, must be reminded that impersonating is a serious criminal offence.
In a comment, Stabroek News (SN) Editor Anand Persaud noted that Doodnauth had not objected to any part of the story that had been carried and had spoken freely when approached by the newspaper.
Persaud rejected Lall’s claim that SN had attempted to subvert the rule of law through its reportage. Persaud said it was unheard of that a minister of the government embroiled in such an incident would not defend his conduct particularly when he had given the newspaper a commitment to do so. That Lall finally gave a statement six weeks after shows even he now realizes that he had to explain his conduct. Persaud noted that Lall’s statement failed to mention that his own party, the PPP, has since said it has reprimanded him over his behaviour.
As to Lall’s charge that the newspaper had not sought to find eyewitnesses, Persaud said that the newspaper had spoken to one of the most important witnesses, Doodnauth. Furthermore, SN had attempted to speak to Lall himself but he had declined several requests for his side of the matter. Persaud said attempts were also made to speak to persons in the vicinity of where the incident occurred but no one was willing to say anything.
Doodnauth had told this newspaper in an interview that the minister had a steady relationship with his aunt who lives at Montrose. The young man said that on the night in question, the minister had picked up his aunt and they had gone to a barbecue at a bar on the Vryheid’s Lust Public Road. Doodnauth said he went to the barbecue some time later with another relative and saw his aunt standing wit
h the minister. He said he called her over, but after she had been standing with him for a while, the minister approached them and began using expletives. He said after cursing, the minister who had a bottle of Carib Beer in his hand left, but subsequently returned and cursed him again. After the minister did this for a third time, Doodnauth said, he became angry and rebuked him. An argument ensued and the government official took out his firearm and hit the teenager on the forehead with it. It caused a deep wound, and with blood gushing down his face, Doodnauth said, he left the rum shop for his aunt’s home. The young man said he was pursued by the minister who drove his vehicle close to him and jammed him. He did not fall, but the minister emerged from his vehicle and fired several gunshots in the air. He also threatened him. Doodnauth said he and the minister had settled the matter, noting that it was a family issue.