Presidential Advisor on Empowerment, Odinga Lumumba was this afternoon accused of pushing a Presiding Officer (PO) after she refused to allow a PPP/C polling agent, who did not have any identification, to enter her station.
However the politician strongly denied the allegation when contacted. “False. False. But I can’t talk to you right now I am busy with elections talk to me tomorrow,” he said.
Further pressed, he said “She [the PO] was blocking the entrance and I pushed my way in, alright,” before disconnecting the call.
A visibly upset Onika Beckles managed to recount a bit of the incident before she was taken away from Neville Wray’s Residence, Aubrey Barker Road, to vote and then to the hospital for medical attention for a back injury she sustained.
The woman said, “Lumumba just came in here and just pushed me into the grill.” She said that after Lumumba “hit me”, a man started recording the episode. Stabroek News later learnt that the man was an EAB observer.
According to Beckles, Lumumba snatched the man’s phone. She explained that the incident occurred after she denied access to one of “his people” who had turned up without identification.
Later, a bus load of A Partnership of National Unity (APNU) supporters turned up visibly upset. One of them said that what had happened is not fair and added that earlier in the day there was an incident at a Lodge school involving another PPP/C member.
The EAB observer was writing a statement when this newspaper arrived and when approached indicated that he was not permitted to speak with the media.
