Red Thread is calling on President David Granger to relieve Minister Volda Lawrence of the social protection portfolio.
Its call comes in light of a comment the minister made in relation to allegations against an APNU+AFC coalition candidate, Winston Harding, who has been charged several times, although not convicted, for child molestation.
When asked about the situation, Lawrence had said that the allegations were a “family issue.”
“This is a family issue that has been going on and on and on and on for whatever reason, I can’t tell you, because if I had a brother, even if there was an accusation, this is not how I would go about helping him,” she told Stabroek News.
“Do you think that me, the minister in charge of that (social protection), would have someone like that running? Do you think that the party would expose itself like that? We are aware of the situation but he was never charged,” she maintained.
Speaking with Stabroek News at a protest held outside of the Minister’s Lamaha Street office yesterday, Karen de Souza, coordinator of Red Thread, said the comments made by Minister Lawrence suggest that she is not qualified to hold her present portfolio.
“To say that it is a family matter seems as if the Minister is setting herself up as judge and jury.
Where is the judicial system in this? An accusation has been made. It is for the police to investigate and the judiciary to settle but claiming it is a family matter when you have responsibility for child protection suggests that you have no concrete plan to address child protection in this country,” she said.
Also present were members of Childlink and the Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association (GRPA).
Efforts by Stabroek News to contact Minister Lawrence proved futile as were efforts to seek a comment from President Granger on Red Thread’s request.
Stabroek News had confirmed that Harding had been charged more than once with indecent assault and another accusation had been made against him in 2012.
After Stabroek News published the information collected on Harding, the coalition declared its non-support for Harding and said the accusations of child molestation as reported in the media are a matter of grave concern.
There, however, has been no response from the government to the comments made by Minister Lawrence.
