Declaring that his party had nothing to do with the lobbing of a grenade outside of Kaieteur News earlier this month, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday offered a range of theories on what might have led to the incident.
Speaking to reporters at his party’s headquarters yesterday, Jagdeo said that the attack could’ve been an act of reprisal on Kaieteur News publisher Glen Lall from members of the criminal underworld.
“Wikileaks revealed that the US government described Glen Lall as having serious contact within the criminal underworld. Could it be that some unpaid bill or something was the reason for this, because we saw the attack in the past on KN? I don’t want to do it on air but somebody should examine the cause of the sad killing of all of those pressmen,” Jagdeo said before declaring that the intellectual author of the attack could’ve been Lall himself.
“It could’ve been Glen Lall himself who did this so that he could get attention. His paper has been doing not so well recently, not being read, its circulation has fallen so maybe it’s to boost circulation. He becomes the story. He gets sympathy. All the diplomats say `oh press freedom’, he becomes a hero and he loves this. He has this hero complex and then he says the PPP took away the gun licences from my bodyguards which sets the stage for him to get back his licence and bodyguard,” Jagdeo said.
Contacted by Stabroek News, Lall said these assertions gave the impression that Jagdeo is losing his mind.
“He’s … craving attention and the power he once had,” Lall told Stabroek News.
Ultimately, however Jagdeo noted that the first entity that could possibly be considered responsible for the attack is his party.
He contended that this was suggested by the release on the matter originating from the prime minister’s office.
“I saw the first release from the government on the matter. The government in the first paragraph rightly condemned the attack and then for three quarters of the release sought to direct the police investigation to the PPP. Talking about it’s the PPP that withdrew ads from the KN. In the press release they listed five things that the PPP did. Well the grenade was never thrown at Glen Lall in the PPP’s period,” Jagdeo said.
He declared that his party did not have anything to do with the attack.
“Our track record is there. All the years we were in office you have never had that. Even with the most hostile criticisms against us by Glen Lall, when we were in office, when we had political power we didn’t use political power to suppress him,” he stressed.
Jagdeo said that “any attack on press freedom is reprehensible, should be condemned and the perpetrators brought to Justice. Any such attack should be condemned if that is what happened here then I condemn it too and we should all find the perpetrators.
“Let’s go through the facts of it. Let’s go through all the possibilities because the Police have to keep an open mind on the matter. It can be one of the five (theories). The police must do their job and go where the evidence leads you not be steered by a press release from the Prime Minister’s office in the direction of the PPP. There are several possibilities. This is how we have to analyze these things and I hope the police does this,” he said.
