Presidential Advisor on Empowerment, Odinga Lumumba was yesterday accused of pushing and verbally abusing a Presiding Officer (PO) after she refused to allow a PPP/C observer, 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.
The PO said that she will be taking legal action.
Onika Beckles, who was earlier quoted as having said that Lumumba “hit me”, when contacted again last night, clarified that she was referring to him pushing her.
Beckles who was in charge of the polling station at Neville Wray’s residence, Aubrey Barker Road, South Ruimveldt said that yesterday a PPP observer brought lunch for the party’s polling agents.
She recalled that the young woman later asked her “if she could fit in” so that the polling agent could vote. Beckles turned down the request and explained to the observer that she was not in possession of the required letter that would allow her to stay at the polling station.
The PO said the woman left and was seen talking on her cellular phone. Around 2 pm, the woman and a colleague returned to the location. Beckles told Stabroek News that the colleague had no form of identification. “I turn and I told her [the observer] that she knew the rules and I asked the lady [the colleague] to leave,” she said adding that the two women stayed in the polling station and when they left, she instructed the police on duty, not to let them in when they returned.
She told Stabroek News that they returned about an hour later and were duly refused entry. “She start railing up,” Beckles said adding that shortly after Lumumba and three men arrived. She said they were armed as she could see their guns printing through their shirts.
The PO said that Lumumba started to abuse the policewoman with foul language and she went to him to explain what had happened. It was while speaking to her in an aggressive tone, she said, that Lumumba pushed her into a grill door.
At this point, she said, the landlord came down and intervened. She said that at some point during the commotion, Lumumba spotted an EAB observer recording him on his cellular phone. According to Beckles, the man’s phone was snatched and immediately destroyed.
The woman told this newspaper that she is traumatized and will be seeking lawyer’s advice today.
While this newspaper was at the location a bus load of A Partnership of National Unity (APNU) supporters turned up visibly upset. One of them said that what had happened was 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.
“It is with great repugnance that I view that episode,” Gecom Chairman Dr Steve Surujbally said after receiving an account of the incident from Assistant Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield, who interviewed all the persons involved and subsequently took Lumumba out of the location after resolving the situation.
“However, you could see that migrating into the arms and hands of the police and they will deal with it…. That must not happen on election day and it was with great repulsion that we view this,” he added.
According to Lowenfield, “Odinga [Lumumba] did, in the presence of Mr Gerry Gouveia, did admit that ‘well, it may have been just a touch and it’s not a shove’… and he was very apologetic for what happened.”
Lowenfield explained that Lumumba had also indicated to the EAB observer that he would replace his damaged phone.
“He said he was going to repay him and he was very sorry for all that happened,” he added.
