A man is now a patient at the West Demerara Regional Hospital after he was allegedly assaulted by two workers from the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL).
Forty-eight-year-old Collin Williams of Goed Fortuin, West Bank Demerara, related to Stabroek News on Friday that he was assaulted on Tuesday by two GPL workers after he enquired of them why his electricity supply had been disconnected.
GPL was contacted multiple times by Stabroek News for a comment on the situation, and it was related by one of their communications officers that the matter had been passed on to their Public Relations Officer, Shevion Sears. However, multiple calls to her phone on Friday went unanswered and the company has not released any statement on the incident.
The police confirmed with this newspaper that an investigation into the matter is ongoing.
“Presently I’m on leave and I have a friend working at the bank, so I called and ask if salary paid and he said yes. So I collected the money from the bank on Tuesday and I went to pay the light bill,” Williams said. He explained that he paid $9,000 on his bill, more than what was due. However, after he paid the bill, he waited at Vreed-en-Hoop to meet his daughter. While waiting Williams explained that he received a call from his wife who related that the electricity had been abruptly disconnected.
“I hang up the phone and I left to go home and I saw the GPL vehicle four or five lots away from my house. I go to them and tell them I paid the bill and ya’ll cut off the light. They ask me if it was cut off before I pay and I said no. So I tell them again that my daughter writing exams and she has to use the computer and internet and I ask them to put on back the light,” Williams said.
He added that after he asked the men to reconnect his electricity, one of the workers related to him that they have no time with that and “they come out here for money.”
He said after he showed them the bill which stated that he had paid on time, he was told by one of the workers that he should take it to the company since “he can’t read bills.”
“He start cuss me up and telling me that he don’t have time with that and I was near to the bus. So he pull off the bus and it knock me and I fall down and get bruise up all over,” Williams recalled.He said that after he stumbled and stood on his feet again, one of the men exited the bus and started attacking him to his head with a large pair of pliers. Subsequently, another worker exited the bus and started to beat him with a piece of wood. “Is a …boy come and say you can’t bank this man and he hold on to one of them and they part we and then the police showed up,” Williams noted. He said that the men were taken into police custody and he was taken to the hospital where he is still a patient.
“My head swell up and my collar and neck. I got some bruises all over me body,” Williams added.
He said that the police came to the hospital and took a statement from him, but he is unsure of what is happening to the investigation.
