Archie Cordis, an AFC councillor attached to the Region 2 Regional Democratic Council (RDC) yesterday voiced his suspicion of plans to sweep events surrounding the illegal reproduction and distribution of this year’s Essequibo Nite tickets “under the rug.”
Cordis told Stabroek News yesterday that he learned of the formation of a committee whose purpose it is to investigate the creation and subsequent distribution of bogus tickets for the event. He added that each and every member of the committee either belongs to the PPP/Civic, or is a PPP activist.
The councillor questioned the propriety of the decision to choose such persons for this particular responsibility instead of regional representatives, asking the question “is it [Essequibo Nite] no longer a regional event? If the event was a state-sponsored event then the selection would be understandable and I would have nothing to say.”
Cordis also stated that the woman who was initially taken into custody then released by police in relation to the event has not been sent on leave to facilitate the investigation of the matter, and is currently still carrying out her duties, as if nothing ever happened. He also stated that after their initial involvement, the police have not been called into the matter, nor does he believe that they will be called in again.
He says it is the combination of these events that aroused his suspicions and led him to believe that efforts are being made to deal with the matter quietly.
Cordis, in a letter published in the October 19 edition of the Stabroek News, stated that he had learned from credible sources that a female PPP regional official was responsible for the distribution of bogus tickets for this year’s Region 2 sponsored Essequibo Nite. He stated that Regional Chairman Parmanand Persaud neglected to mention either Essequibo Night or the sale of counterfeit tickets by the PPP councillor at the October 9 statutory meeting. It was this act that led him to raise the issue at a subsequent meeting. Cordis said when he asked about the issue, the chairman stated that it was confirmed that bogus tickets were sold, but could not say who was arrested.
Former deputy mayor of Anna Regina, Mohamed Khan, in a letter in the October 17 edition of the Stabroek News argued that on the night in question, the booth suspected as the source of the bogus tickets was approached by the Regional Development Officer (RDO) and police ranks who sent the female official, who had been selling tickets, to call another male individual who also had been selling tickets at the same booth. When the woman returned she was told that an examination of her bag revealed something hard, as such a female rank was instructed to search her bag in her presence. Upon searching the woman’s bag the ranks uncovered some of the bogus tickets that were being sold.
According to Cordis, upon speaking to the police he was able to find out that the woman was immediately released after a high official from the RDC intervened on her behalf.
