Social activist Mark Benschop has slammed Public Service Minister Jennifer Westford for hinting in Parliament that he had ties with criminal gangs in Buxton and has threatened to take legal action against her.
The former television host, who contacted this newspaper yesterday, said Westford did not have the moral authority to lecture him.
Speaking in the National Assembly on Thursday during a discussion of the Lusignan massacre, Westford clearly referred to Benschop but did not name him. She said a famous former talk-show host who was known to advocate the overthrow of the government and for his ties to criminal gangs in Buxton and elsewhere went to Lusignan and visited a house adjacent to massacre victims between Christmas and New Year’s Day to distribute toys to the children of the area. Westford said it was strange that the house where the talk show host visited was spared any attack, and it was even stranger that someone who had cared so much for the children and distributed gifts to them, including some of the murdered victims, never condemned the massacre or even revisited the community to offer condolences. “One wonders if his visit a month before the massacre was an act of good deed for the residents or whether it was a collaborative effort to give logistic support to the criminals,” Westford told the House, where she has immunity from prosecution.
Benschop who was pardoned of a treason charge last year, told Stabroek News yesterday morning that he never visited Lusignan uninvited. He said the Vice Chairperson of the Mothers’ Committee on Social Issues, Bibi Jagdeo, who resides in the said street where the massacre took place had invited him last year December to distribute toys to the needy kids in the area. According to Benschop, he accepted the invitation, demonstrating that he was a man for all people. “I went into the area Christmas Eve day along with my son, some members of the media and Jagdeo.”
Benschop said Jagdeo mentioned to him that on six previous occasions President Bharrat Jagdeo had promised to give the children in Tract A Lusignan toys but never showed up. “After I finished sharing the toys I felt elated, because I was able to do it in other areas,” Benschop said.
Contacted by Stabroek News for a comment, Bibi Jagdeo confirmed that she had invited Benschop to distribute toys to about 50 children in the area. Bibi Jagdeo, who is a community worker, told Stabroek News that the distribution of the toys was done at her brother’s residence located at Tract ‘A’ Lusignan, the same street where the 11 people were slaughtered on January 26. “I don’t know where all of this coming from. Mark went other places and shared toys and nobody made a fuss about it,” Jagdeo said, adding that she would lodge a complaint with Human Services Minister Priya Manickchand over this latest development.
She said too that after the slaughter Benschop returned to the village and expressed his condolences to those who were hurt. “This is a real childish game these people playing
