Dear Editor,
Minister Lall finally made an unconvincing statement in the Chronicle and Kaieteur News. The first thing that struck me as a petty approach was the fact that he did not also send same to Stabroek News. He had promised to make a statement soon after he was named by the media as being involved in the now famous “rum shop brawl” and such statement was supposed to be sent to all newspapers in order to be more forceful. (Editor’s note: a copy of the statement was later received from Mr Lall’s lawyer).
However, the main issue here is Minister Lall’s statement: Many of us are not lawyers but we can all comprehend to a fair extent what we read. After reading his statement many times over, I was honestly quite embarrassed. Mr. Lall is trying to make himself seem as the victim! The inconsistencies in every paragraph are way too many to hold true.
Nowhere did he say that he struck Doodnauth. How can that be so when Doodnauth himself said that he was assaulted by the minister and has a head wound to prove it? (The minister actually acknowledged in his statement that Doodnauth did not want to take the matter further. How could that be if there was no dispute between them?) If Doodnauth was lying, the minister or any other person should have immediately (and not six weeks later) straightened the facts. After all this time is he now calling Doodnauth a liar? Why was his firearm seized? Why was he reprimanded by the PPP? If the facts were as he stated, there was no reason to reprimand him.
Minister Lall is now claiming that he was assaulted! If that was the case, it was his legal duty to carry out a citizen’s arrest of the person who committed that act if the condition called for it. There is no crime in that and this would not result in seizure of his firearm, instead he would have been commended.
Mr. Lall’s statement is very disappointing.
Yours faithfully,
Lewis Hale
