The quartet of social activist Mark Benschop, trade unionists Lincoln Lewis and Norris Witter and university lecturer Frederick Kissoon yesterday picketed the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security over the controversial audio recording of alleged child solicitation that is said to involve Office of the President Press Officer, Kwame McCoy.

According to Benschop, they are picketing because Human Services Minister, Priya Manickchand has been “quiet on this issue”. He noted that in the past, several incidents have occurred and the Minister remained silent. “Why is she quiet…she must speak out”, Benschop declared.  He said too that President Bharrat Jagdeo must speak out. 

Benschop said that he was willing to cooperate with law enforcement officials stating that the family of the 15-year-old boy on the tape had come to him because they had no faith in the police. “I am responsible for making that tape”, he stated reiterating that he was prepared to cooperate with the police. McCoy had sued several media houses for linking him to the tape and had called it a fabrication.

Meanwhile, former youth leader David Olton, now resident in the US, has lodged a complaint with the UN Commission on the Rights of the Child based in Geneva against McCoy and the manner in which the Guyana Government is handling the complaint. Olton is a former two-term President of the Rotaract Club of Georgetown Central.

 In photo, from left to right, Lewis, Witter and Benschop enter the Human Services Ministry compound in an attempt to see the Minister and talk with a staffer.