The Office of the Leader of the Opposition (OLO) repeated its claim yesterday about the smuggling of chicken into the country and provided numbers for two vehicles which it said had been involved.
On Saturday, the OLO’s claim of smuggling had been rejected by the Ministry of Agriculture which said that approval had been given for importation as local producers could not meet the demand. The Ministry issued several documents including one from the Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA) to the Guyana Revenue Authority notifying of the approval of imports.
The OLO yesterday said that the letter the Minister produced from the GLDA does little to refute that there was smuggling of chicken.
It said that Minister Zulfikar Mustapha must publicly explain why neither he nor his Ministry informed the nation about the purported shortage of chicken before the OLO disclosure on Saturday.
“He must also explain why were vehicles with licence number GAE 5137, which had 36,000 pounds of chicken, and GAE 6041, which had 22,000 pounds, held at Whim Police Station without any documentation permitting the importation?”, the OLO said.
“Could the Minister enlighten the nation who issued the permission to these two vehicles to import the chicken and could he publish (a) copy of the said permission?”, the OLO asked.
