Two men accused of setting the Ministry of Health on fire yesterday appeared before Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court and were remanded to prison.
It is alleged that between July 16 and 17 at Brickdam, Clayton Westford, 19, an office assistant of 7 West La Penitence and 21-year-old Tedena Bagot, a pork-knocker of 32 Second Street, Alexander Village unlawfully and maliciously set fire to the Ministry of Health’s building, property of the state.
The two men were not required to plead to the indictable charge of setting fire to a public building when it was read to them.
Attorney-at-Law Michael Somersault who represented Westford told the court that his client is innocent of the charge laid against him, adding that he was in his bed at the time of the incident. The attorney said his client was arrested, taken to the police station and interrogated for a crime he did not commit.
Somersault then made an application for reasonable bail to be granted his client on the grounds that he has no antecedents, has a fixed place of abode, poses no risk of flight and has been in full cooperation with the police in their investigations. The lawyer also asked for an early court date saying that he will leave all other comments for that time, when “many things will be revealed which will point to my client’s innocence.”
Bagot, who was unrepresented, told the court in his own defence that he had nothing to do with the fire and knew nothing about it.
“Me ain’t know nothing about duh fire meh worship,” Bagot said.
No representative of the Ministry of Health was present in court yesterday.
Police Prosecutor Denise Griffith asked that the accused be denied bail and remanded to prison. Accord-ing to Griffith, they are out to cause terror in the city and as law enforcers, the Police Force cannot condone such practices. The prosecutor added that the police acted on information received that led to the arrest of the defendants.
She said also that the two men had admitted their involvement in the commission of the crime in statements taken by the police. Griffith said too that she would leave all other comments for the commencement of the hearing.
The duo was subsequently remanded to prison and the case transferred to Court Three for August 7.
A huge fire sparked by channa bombs completely destroyed the Ministry of Health’s main building and an annex at Brickdam in the wee hours of the morning on July 17, devouring decades-old records, vehicles and a string of key divisions in a major blow to the health sector.
The raging inferno erupted some time before 3 am and rumbled on for three hours amid a downpour and a valiant campaign by the Guyana Fire Service to save three buildings in the ministry’s southern wing and its immediate neighbour, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC).
The conflagration levelled the offices of two ministers, permanent secretary, chief medical officer and administrative staff, the Registry, Disease Control Unit, Adoles-cent Health Unit, Tobacco Control Unit, Standards Department and a section of the Accounts Department.
