Guyana News

A preliminary investigation has found that the seizure of contraband items, including marijuana, from an inmate and the assault of another by prison officers triggered Sunday’s unrest at the Lusignan Prison, where a wooden building was destroyed by fire.

Guyana has now reached the 300 mark as COVID-19 cases here  continue to rise.

The reconstruction of the structure that was torched at the Lusignan Prison on Sunday appears unlikely, according to de facto Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan, who says that expansion works at other prison facilities will create the capacity for the housing of more inmates.

Some APNU+AFC coalition supporters temporarily blocked caretaker president David Granger’s convoy as it was making its way out of State House yesterday as they demanded that he engage them.

With Region One (Barima-Waini)  becoming the epicentre of Guyana’s COVID-19 infections and lockdowns now instituted in certain areas, the regional chairman believes that there is need for wider relief for residents.

Amid continuing concerns about the electoral crisis in Guyana, Organisation of American States (OAS) Secretary General Luis Almagro is seeking a meeting of the Permanent Council of the body on the situation here.

Police are currently investigating the discovery of the partially decomposed body of a man in a Strathspey canal on the East Coast of Demerara.

The Ministry of Public Infrastructure’s Electrical Engineering Department yesterday highlighted the theft of 37 Light-Emitting Diode (LED) Street Lights in the following areas: According to the Department, the replacement cost per unit amounts to $73,000 which will cost the Ministry $2,701,000 in total to replace all 37 LED lights.

A New Amsterdam man accused of fatally stabbing, Nickosie Vankenie over a Guinness beer on July 3rd, was yesterday placed on $300,000 bail at the New Amsterdam Magistrate’s Court after he was charged with man-slaughter. 

A Rosignol, West Bank Berbice man was yesterday sentenced to four years imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to a possession of narcotics charge.

The Ministry of Public Infrastructure (MPI) yesterday said that metallic poles with street lights between La Grange and Pouderoyen, West Bank Demerara are being removed from near to a GPL feeder because of the risk posed to maintenance crews.

The Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) yesterday announced that the Bourda Market will be sanitised tomorrow.

All GTT retail stores have re-opened to customers. Effective July 13, 2020, GTT in a release yesterday said that it reopened both its store and kiosk locations at the Giftland Mall to facilitate in-person transactions, the final GTT retail location to re-open since closure at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) is still awaiting a response from John Fernandes Limited on a quotation for the damage done to the Municipal Abattoir.

Months after the death of Pomeroon River farmer Ryan Khayum, who perished after an accident involving a Guyana Defence Force (GDF) vessel, his family is still awaiting justice.

Sukraj ‘Aaron’ Niranjan, 55, was forced to quit school after being paralyzed at aged eight for four years, but he became a self-taught tailor, which later helped him to secure a job with an organisation in New York that supplies outfits to the US Army.

United States-based Guyanese political commentator Rickford Burke last month lost libel suits he had filed back in 2013 against MTV, Guyana Times, and Little Rock TV.

Despite warnings being issued, vending is continuing outside of the newly constructed Infectious Disease Hospital, at Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara, and Georgetown Mayor Ubraj Narine has said that the City Council will not allow tolerate such lawlessness.

A New and United Guyana (ANUG) yesterday said that the GECOM Chair Claudette Singh continues to show weakness by indulg-ing Chief Election Officer’s (CEO) Keith Lowenfield’s “gross professional misconduct” and it urged her to fire the “ignoble” CEO and get on with the Commission’s business.

Sharmila Inderjali, the mother of former murder accused Marcus Bisram, and her co-accused, Maryanna Lionel, who were on trial for allegedly offering a detective $4 million to forego charges against Bisram and others, are expected to be sentenced this week.