The Opposition People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) has come out in full support of it’s executive member Irfaan Ali who was on Wednesday hauled from his home in the wee hours of the morning by agents of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) and subsequently placed before the court where he faced multiple charges in relation to the sale and transfer of lands located in Sparendaam, East Coast Demerara (ECD), commonly known as Pradoville 2.
In a statement, the Party said that the trumped up charges against Ali was a clear case of the APNU/AFC Government upping its political vendetta against the political opposition following their defeat at “Local Government Elections (LGE), the No-Confidence
Motion filed against them and a visionless budget that has plunged them into even
deeper political woes.”
Moreover, the Party said that during a recent sitting of the National Assembly, Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan informed Ali that he is directing charges to be filed against him and also told Anil Nandlall, another executive member and Presidential hopeful, that he will be convicted.
Against that backdrop the PPP/C noted that SOCU is taking political directions from Ministers.
According to the PPP/C “We are not oblivious to the fact that these charges are intended to tarnish our leaders in order to impact the choice of the PPP’s presidential candidate for the 2020 General and Regional Elections.”
However, the Party noted that any such endeavour would be unsuccessful.
See their full statement below:
After a thrashing at the Local Government Elections (LGE), the No-Confidence
Motion filed against them and a visionless budget that has plunged them into even
deeper political woes, the Coalition Government, as promised, has upped the
political vendetta against the Opposition.
We have seen another round of trumped up charges against People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Executive Member and former Minister of Housing, Irfaan Ali, in relation to the sale of lands at Goedverwagting.
These charges have been dangling for over 2 years.
Their institution, today, a few days before the national budget debates begins and
of course, the No-Confidence Motion is no coincidence. The modus operandi in the
arrest of Irfaan Ali, says it all.
A vanload of Policemen turned up at his house at 4:00 am, arrested him and took
him to the Headquarters of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU).
Irfaan Ali attended SOCU’s office on every occasion he was requested to do so
over the last year. So, there was no need for the show of power. But, this is the
PNC back in form.
During a recent sitting of the National Assembly, Minister Khemraj Ramjattan, did
inform Irfaan Ali that he is directing charges to be filed against him and told Anil
Nandlall that he will be convicted. Now in hindsight, we realized our error in not
taking these remarks as serious as we should have done. We would like to highlight
that not only is SOCU taking political directions from Ministers but is being run by
a foreign envoy, masquerading as a “consultant”.
This “consultant” was seen at daybreak this morning, directing the operations. Another important functionary at SOCU is an officer who was dismissed on numerous occasions for corruption.
It is clear that authoritarianism is being taken to another level.
We remind of the political threat to our supporters issued by Joseph Harmon at a
public meeting in Sophia and the racist remarks of Volda Lawerence, coupled with
the threat to remove our Councillors from office without an election. The dark days
of dictatorship are returning faster than most expected.
We are not oblivious to the fact that these charges are intended to tarnish our leaders in order to impact the choice of the PPP’s presidential candidate for the 2020 General and Regional Elections.
This plan will also not succeed.
No doubt, greater pressures will be mounted, more charges will be filed and more
agencies of the State will be directed to target our leadership, in order to break our
spirit and intimidate our supporters.
However, it will succeed only in making us stronger and even more determined to lead and unite, not only our supporters, but every fair, law abiding and patriotic Guyanese, irrespective of class, race or religion in an indefatigable movement and struggle to remove this corrupt,
incompetent and vengeful cabal from Government.
