Gunmen yesterday robbed the makeshift office of B. Shivnauth Construction Company of over $2 million in wages for its workers.
According to reports, the three gunmen parked a car in front the Blue Note Night Club next door to the makeshift office on Camp Street, and entered the construction site through a gap in the club’s left side fence.
“I see when them walk through de gap in de fence,” one worker recalled, “but we couldn’t do anything cause we were all out in the open,” he said. He explained that the men shouted to them not to move then demanded to know where the office was.
One man related that even though the gunmen ordered them not to move he scooted up a nearby ladder.
The workers said the men grabbed a young man and pointed a gun to his head and demanded that he tell them where the office was. When the young man couldn’t say another worker shouted that the office was at the front of the building.
A third worker was then grabbed by the gunmen and dragged to the rear of the Camp Street building. There they took a painter hostage and forced him to knock at the office door.
Vijai Mohan, the foreman in charge of the worksite, explained that his two brothers, the accountant and two other men were in the office when the gunmen forced their way in and demanded that they hand over the cash.
The foreman said that before he could call his brother, via cellular phone, to tell him not to open the door it was too late. The bandits, he said, used a clever ploy; they had the painter call to the men inside the office to have them open the door.
The bandits were able to cart off over $2million that was supposed to be paid to over 60 workers yesterday.
The police were at the scene when Stabroek News arrived around 1.20 pm and they subsequently arrested one of the workers for failing to give them information.
“If he ain’t want talk that mean he must know something,” one of the officers was overheard saying as the worker was chucked into the tray of the police pick-up.
Mohan explained that the company has several worksites and the office at Camp Street was the central location where all the workers collected their wages.
The workers were made to understand that they would receive their lost wages this week. “But buddy I got children to buy food for,” one worker said, distress visible on his face.
However, most of the men stood in a large group and said they were thankful that no one was hurt and they could wait another week for their money as long as they still had their lives.