President David Granger’s Public Information and Press Services Officer Lloyda Nicholas-Garrett was yesterday accused by Opposition Member of Parliament Nigel Dharamlall of using a racially derogatory term to describe staff at the Ministry of the Presidency.
Dharamlall shared on his Facebook page screenshots purporting to be from a private Facebook conversation between Nicholas-Garrett and two other friends and in which it appeared that a racial slur was used by her.
As a result, Dharamlall, who has in recent months made several public statements which were derogatory and racist in tone, accused her of using “highly racial and very derogatory terms in conversations with her friends as they describe their fellow Office of the President colleagues,” whom he believes are Guyanese of Indo-Guyanese descent.
He followed this description with a “call for the immediate termination of the services of the Racist Staffer and a period of race relations rehabilitation for her.”
According to Dharamlall, his “taxes are not to be used to pay anyone who is racist.”
Stabroek News reached out to Nicholas-Garrett but her phone was turned off and her Facebook page has been removed.
Attempts to reach her immediate supervisor, Communications Director of the Ministry of the Presidency Mark Archer, also proved futile.
Stabroek News was able to make contact with Director of Public Information Imran Khan, who explained that he has been unable to verify the contents of the screenshots with Nicholas-Garrett and therefore could not comment on the matter. “I’m too aware of how easy it is to photoshop things, so I will leave it to Lloyda to first address the matter,” Khan said.
