Efforts to find three Guyanese sailors and their vessel are continuing and the authorities are expected to meet with the families of the men today to provide an update on the situation, Transport Minister Robeson Benn said yesterday.
Missing are captain of the cargo ship MV Oliver L, Wexton Andrews, called ‘Mampy,’ 33, of Uitvlugt, West Coast Demerara; Ramdat Roopnarine, 38, of Lot 483 Zeelugt, West Coast Demerara and Clad Burnette, also of the West Demerara area.
The vessel left Trinidad and Tobago last Wednesday and should have arrived in Guyana around Christmas.
Yesterday Benn told this newspaper that continued efforts are being made to locate the men and the 56-foot long vessel.
He said that the boat has a full complement of communication equipment, however, there has been no sign from the men and he deemed the scenario “troubling” and “worrisome.” In addition, Benn noted that the authorities in neighbouring Trinidad and Venezuela have also provided more help to locate the men.
Benn said that he understood the distress the families of the men are experiencing and he was hopeful that the seamen will be found.
The families noted yesterday that they have been making frequent checks with the authorities on the men’s whereabouts. Roopnarine’s wife, Kamaldhai Suckoo, told this newspaper that she had given a detailed statement to the police at Brickdam on her husband’s history working with the company up to when she last spoke to him.
She said Andrew’s wife also provided similar information to the police on the missing man.
As part of the search efforts, the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority has urged low flying aircraft and marine vessels to be on the lookout for the men.
Benn met officials of the relevant maritime agencies and officials of the company recently to determine what courses of action were to be taken to locate the men. Efforts have included aerial searches in the Waini area over the North West District, while the Atlantic seas and the region close to the mouth of the Oronoco River, near to the border with Venezuela, have also been scoured to date with no positive results.
Stabroek News reported that the MV Oliver L has had several brushes with the law in recent times over fuel smuggling and according to relatives of the missing men, there have been instances in the past when the men reported that they encountered law enforcement officials, while operating the vessel.
In 2008, the vessel, which is white in colour with a black hull, was seized by the authorities while transporting alleged smuggled fuel and it was handed over to the GDF Coastguard, which was keeping it in custody for the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA). The owners of the vessel had approached the courts and it was subsequently released to them minus the fuel, which the GEA seized.
Chandradatt Ramdass, the brother of Johnny Ramdass, the managing partner of the company which owns the vessel, and two of the three missing sailors, Andrews and Roopnarine, were later found guilty of transporting petroleum in bulk quantity on sea without a bulk transportation carrier licence. They were all kept in the custody of the state until the fine for the offence was paid.
