-villager who set up connection in custody after anger flares
Mark Anthony Girdhari Persaud, 8, left his Annandale, East Coast Demerara home to catch fish with his little brother in a canal a short distance from his house yesterday only to be electrocuted.
The lad, who often swam and fished in the canal, cast his line but it caught onto a piece of wire. He went to free it and got shocked by the electricity in the illegal connection. “Why this got to be meh own”, his mother, Lailawattie August, cried. “Why, why”, she screamed as other relatives sobbed loudly.
Angry residents identified a villager who, they said, was the one responsible for setting up the illegal connection. Several men armed with pieces of wood, ran to a street where the man’s truck was parked. He had already fled. They let the air out of the truck’s tyres and vowed to find him. A relative turned him in to the police yesterday after the authorities held his daughter.
Shortly before noon yesterday, Mark had gone to the trench where he normally swam and fished. He cast his line which caught onto the wire and when he went to free it, he was shocked. His sister, Karen August said the little brother he was with, ran home to tell them what happened and she raced to the spot. “When me go me try to tek he out from the water. He ah froth up and ah get shock up more”, the girl sobbed. “Me try foh help he”. Karen said she also felt the electrical current running through her when she tried to pluck her brother out of the water.
A resident eventually used a rusty axe to cut the wire but Mark was dead. His body was retrieved from the canal and placed on the ground. His hand which had touched the wire was burnt and relatives waited with the body under an umbrella for the undertakers to arrive. Karen said that she was verbally abused by the wife of the man accused of running the illegal connection. “The wife cuss she up because she seh ‘ow God, she shock me brother and kill he’,” a relative said.
15 times
According to residents, the man was at the scene and when it was ascertained that Mark was dead, he fled. One neighbour told Stabroek News that the illegal electrical connection was there for the past three years. He said that at least 15 times the matter had been reported to the Guyana Power and Light (GPL). “GPL come and cut out the wire. When GPL back gone, they come and put it back again”. The wire had been re-connected on Saturday night, several residents said. “This is a regular thing them ah do”.
GPL personnel were at the scene yesterday and remove coils of the wire. Police were at the scene also and were seeking the man but did not find him at the time.
Residents said that the man fled after it was ascertained that Mark was dead. His truck was eventually located at another street in Annandale. A woman there said that he would normally go there to drink but she had not seen him in a while and was surprised when he turned up and “hold he head”. She said that he then picked up a bicycle and rode away. Several men, some armed with pieces of wood had run to the street when it was learnt that the truck was there. They let the air out of the truck’s tyres as two women berated them and told them to allow the police to handle the matter. The men then ran to another house, but the man was not there. They vowed that they would find him.
The police held the man’s teenage daughter after he and his wife fled. A relative later took them to the Police station. Relatives offered a settlement to Mark’s family yesterday but relatives advised them not to take it, a relative said.
At Mark’s home yesterday, relatives screamed in grief. The lad was a student of the Annandale Primary School and was due to enter Grade 3 in the upcoming school year. He was the 11th of 13 siblings.
The National Assembly had earlier this month passed a Bill aimed at curbing widespread theft in the electricity sector. The updated laws empower GPL, among other public suppliers, to refuse service to persons convicted on multiple offences under the Act. The new law also largely sets out harsher penalties for persons caught in the act(s), among its other provisions.
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds said that the aim of the legislation is to bring an end to widespread electricity theft among both residential and commercial consumers. One of the tougher penalties in the amended legislation states that every person over the age of 18 years occupying a home where any act considered illegal under the legislation is perpetrated would be considered culpable. The fines attached to the offences have also been raised and there is mandatory imprisonment for residential offenders who are convicted on three occasions; the fines have also increased for commercial offenders.
