Oluatoyin Alleyne

Defending the raid at a Bartica nightclub which resulted in several women suspected of being trafficked being taken into custody but no charges being laid against the alleged traffickers to date, junior Minister of Social Security Simona Broomes says that there is need for a proper unit to tackle this crime.

Outgoing Canadian High Commissioner Dr Nicole Giles has urged the PPP/C to take up its seats in parliament and says the country must move swiftly towards electoral reforms and addressing matters such as the use of state resources during elections.

Saying that his administration would endeavour to eradicate the enemies of the people, such as crime, disease, ignorance and poverty, President David Granger in his inaugural address to the National Assembly yesterday announced steps the new administration plans to take the country forward.

Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, who is also the Minister of Information, is not clear what action, if any, will be taken based on a long-completed probe of financial irregularities at state broadcaster NCN since he is yet to see the report.

The holding of a 13-year-old girl in the police lock-ups for close to a week after she ran away with an adult male has once again raised the issue of there being a more educated police force and Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan said that he will work to ensure that this is the last case of minors being placed in adult lockups.

Defending his decision to instruct Commissioner of Police Seelall Persaud to fire one of the policemen who tortured a 15-year-old boy at the Leonora Police Station in 2009, Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan says he also expects the Police Service Commission (PSC) to dismiss the second cop implicated, who it promoted earlier this year.

-Regional Executive Officers likely to be replaced   Former Chief Election Officer Gocool Boodoo earned close to half a million dollars per month as a consultant for the Ministry of Local Government but has since resigned his position according to new Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan who said he is unclear as to what services were provided by Boodoo.

For a woman who nine years ago had life as she knew it destroyed, 33-year-old Jo-Ann Lynch is a pillar of strength and perseverance but justice continues to elude in her quest to ensure that the woman whose action changed her life forever, faces the consequences.

She is seen as the quiet and before now, not very visible partner of Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo but after one conversation with Sita Nagamootoo, one quickly realises that she is a woman of strength and resilience and one who has been the rock her husband sought refuge in whenever the political punches came fast and furious.

  Nine new ministers were yesterday appointed for the new APNU+AFC administration and there is at least one still to be sworn in, which would swell the number to 25, but President David Granger said the junior appointees would be understudying their seniors.

Announcing that his administration would soon set up what he called a Public Service Staff College to ensure that public servants can “read, spell and count,” President David Granger yesterday warned that they would be promoted based only on merit and not because of who they might be related to or affiliated with.

The Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom) last night released results for 78% of polling stations, showing the incumbent PPP/C and the opposition alliance APNU+AFC neck and neck but angering the opposition alliance as many of the uncounted stations represented its stronghold.

As both of the major political campaigns announced results favouring them at Monday’s polls, the Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom) yesterday came under growing pressure to release official results but both Chairman Dr Steve Surujbally and Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield maintained that they were bound to follow the process stipulated by law.

Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom) Dr Steve Surujbally last evening appealed to all political parties and citizenry to let peace and tranquility prevail as Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield reported that apart from a few glitches the country’s national and regional elections went smoothly yesterday.

Today marks 180 years of the arrival of the Portuguese in Guyana.

Buckling under pressure, President Donald Ramotar yesterday fired Dr Bheri Ramsaran as Minister of Health more than a week after a recording emerged of him verbally abusing activist Sherlina Nageer who yesterday labelled the sacking an “elections time gimmick”.

The issues that push activist Sherlina Nageer into action can vary from a boy’s genitals burnt by the police, protestors shot and killed, a woman dying after an illegal abortion, a child being raped or just a woman suffering a mental health breakdown.

Scores of persons yesterday expressed their outrage at Minister of Health Dr Bheri Ramsaran’s abuse of activist Sherlina Nageer and called for his resignation even as the PPP/C’s prime ministerial candidate Elisabeth Harper described his remarks as “unacceptable and an affront to women”.

The opposition alliance has now evolved into a movement that will break the “Berlin Wall of ethnic preference,” according to APNU+AFC prime ministerial candidate Moses Nagamootoo, who says Guyanese, particularly young people, are bringing real issues to the fore.

Head of the Child Care & Protection Agency (CC&PA) Ann Greene has described the case of the 14-year-old who was allegedly prostituted by her mother, and was then sent to the New Opportunity Corps (NOC) after she had escaped from the agency’s care as reflecting a certain “uniqueness.”