A push-cart operator is alleging that PPP’s Freedom House guards assaulted him on Friday and an official said that an investigation has been launched into the claims.
Joseph Narine Singh visited this newspaper’s offices yesterday to relate his experience. He said that on Friday night around 8:30 he was heading west on Robb Street and had already passed Freedom House when he saw a guard who works there, lounging at a store not far from Freedom House. “He and my eye mek four and he ask me why the f I watching he like that and I curse he back in the same manner,” Singh said. Singh said he told the guard that he could look anywhere in Guyana.
According to Singh, the guard then rushed into Freedom House and came out with two other security officials, one of whom he knew and named. He said the two other guards were armed with handguns, while the first one was armed with a shotgun. “They start assaulting me and tell me I mustn’t talk to people like that,” Singh alleged. He said after hitting him with the guns, they chased him away.
Immediately after, Singh said, he went to the offices of CNS Channel Six, located close-by and “keep a noise but the lady seh she ain’t business”. Singh said that on Saturday morning he visited Freedom House to complain and was told to return at 8:30 am yesterday.
He said that when he returned yesterday, one of the guards who had assaulted him saw him and asked him what he was doing there and ordered him to move on. Singh said he left and returned about half an hour later and met an official. According to Singh, he did not get any “satisfaction”. He said the official told him that the guard who allegedly hit him had gone on leave and he has to wait for further investigations. “Right now, the pain more than me,” Singh said. He said that since the beating he has been unable to work. He usually works as a push-cart operator at the Stabroek Market.
When Freedom House was contacted, this newspaper was put on to an official who identified himself as Ramroop. He confirmed that Singh had indeed made the allegations. “He made an allegation and we are still to do an investigation into it and we are doing that now,” Ramroop said.
