Oluatoyin Alleyne

By Oluatoyin Williams It might be seasonal, but African head wraps are very much a going thing in Guyana even though many who step out in the headgear are more enamoured of the fashion than of the culture and tradition.

The Guyana Police Force will be asked to investigate what appears to be illicit transactions involving the Deputy Chief Executive Officer (Administration) of the Guyana Power & Light (GPL) and a member of the company’s board, who paid themselves millions of dollars.

A mother is fighting for the release of her 15-year-old daughter, who was held at a police station for over a week before being placed at the Sophia Juvenile Holding Centre.

Weeks after she lost her reputed husband in a mining pit accident, a young mother faced added hardship when her mother-in-law forcefully removed her from the house she called home even as she fights to get some form of compensation from her husband’s employer.

Results from a ten-year surveillance have revealed that 79% of the persons diagnosed with cancer receive no treatment; a fact that should be of major concern to all Guyana, according to Director of Disease Control at the Ministry of Health Dr Morris Edwards who also revealed that the second most affected group is made up of persons between the ages of 15-39.

The government last evening took a major step towards scaling back the controversial benefits package for former presidents, which Finance Minister Winston Jordan denounced as a “vulgar” insult to hardworking taxpayers that have had to foot the bill.

Some residents of Bartica are objecting to Gordon Bradford being returned to the position of Chairman of Region Seven (Cuyuni/Mazaruni) and are calling on the ruling coalition to support someone else, but Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan said he is unaware of any dissatisfaction by citizens to Bradford retaining that position.

Minister of State Joseph Harmon yesterday said that the fuel scam discovered at the Guyana Oil Company (GuyOil) where vehicles not affiliated with any government ministry or agency have been accessing fuel involves millions of dollars and he said the Managing Director of the company has to go.

President David Granger says that when the PPP/C takes up its 32 seats in Parliament, the government will be able to reach out to it for more inclusive governance and he acknowledged that parts of the agreement underpinning the historic alliance between APNU and the AFC collide with the Constitution and would therefore have to await reforms In an exclusive interview with the Stabroek News last Friday the Head of State said it was following legal advice this would have been discovered.

Canada’s recent $126 million (CDN$750,000) grant to Guyana aims to up conviction rates with the number of issues to be tackled ranging from improving police investigative capabilities to enhanced prosecution in the courts.

Defending the raid at a Bartica nightclub which resulted in several women suspected of being trafficked being taken into custody but no charges being laid against the alleged traffickers to date, junior Minister of Social Security Simona Broomes says that there is need for a proper unit to tackle this crime.

Outgoing Canadian High Commissioner Dr Nicole Giles has urged the PPP/C to take up its seats in parliament and says the country must move swiftly towards electoral reforms and addressing matters such as the use of state resources during elections.

Saying that his administration would endeavour to eradicate the enemies of the people, such as crime, disease, ignorance and poverty, President David Granger in his inaugural address to the National Assembly yesterday announced steps the new administration plans to take the country forward.

Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, who is also the Minister of Information, is not clear what action, if any, will be taken based on a long-completed probe of financial irregularities at state broadcaster NCN since he is yet to see the report.

The holding of a 13-year-old girl in the police lock-ups for close to a week after she ran away with an adult male has once again raised the issue of there being a more educated police force and Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan said that he will work to ensure that this is the last case of minors being placed in adult lockups.

Defending his decision to instruct Commissioner of Police Seelall Persaud to fire one of the policemen who tortured a 15-year-old boy at the Leonora Police Station in 2009, Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan says he also expects the Police Service Commission (PSC) to dismiss the second cop implicated, who it promoted earlier this year.

-Regional Executive Officers likely to be replaced   Former Chief Election Officer Gocool Boodoo earned close to half a million dollars per month as a consultant for the Ministry of Local Government but has since resigned his position according to new Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan who said he is unclear as to what services were provided by Boodoo.

For a woman who nine years ago had life as she knew it destroyed, 33-year-old Jo-Ann Lynch is a pillar of strength and perseverance but justice continues to elude in her quest to ensure that the woman whose action changed her life forever, faces the consequences.

She is seen as the quiet and before now, not very visible partner of Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo but after one conversation with Sita Nagamootoo, one quickly realises that she is a woman of strength and resilience and one who has been the rock her husband sought refuge in whenever the political punches came fast and furious.

  Nine new ministers were yesterday appointed for the new APNU+AFC administration and there is at least one still to be sworn in, which would swell the number to 25, but President David Granger said the junior appointees would be understudying their seniors.