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Crime Chief takes statement from Nageer on Health Minister’s threats
– to receive recording of confrontation
Crime Chief Leslie James yesterday interviewed women’s rights activist, Sherlina Nageer, about the highly
Sherlina Nageer
publicized ‘slap and strip’ threats that Health Minister Dr. Bheri Ramsaran made to her.
Nageer told Kaieteur News that she gave the senior police official a statement and is to hand over a recording of the confrontation to the Crime Chief today.
“He took a statement and asked questions. He said that they will investigate soon, but he didn’t give me a deadline,” the activist said during a brief telephone interview.
“We will wait to see what the outcome is, (but) we expect the police to act professionally and to treat this case like any other.”
Leslie James, the Crime Chief, later confirmed that the meeting took place, but would only say that “the matter will be investigated,” when asked about other possible developments in the probe.
An investigation is likely to result in police taking a statement from the Health Minister.
Yesterday, Nageer and others (protestors) picketed the Office of the President to demand Dr. Ramsaran’s resignation. She said that a protest will also be staged today outside Attorney General Anil Nandlall’s office.
The protestors will also be pushing for the Attorney General’s resignation over recorded threats he had made to a Kaieteur News journalist.
The activist had said that protestors are asking President Donald Ramotar to fire “two of the main miscreants in his government.”
Dr. Ramsaran gained unwelcome publicity last week after he was recorded threatening to “slap” Nageer, “for the fun of it.”
He was also recorded saying that he could “have some of my women strip her…”
This occurred after Nageer queried the Health Minister’s presence outside the Whim Magistrate’s Court, with other PPP supporters, in support of former President Bharrat Jagdeo.
Telling the activist to “Eff off”, Dr. Ramsaran also referred to the activist as an “idiot” and a “little piece of s**t”.
Even after issuing an apology, Dr. Ramsaran was later recorded labeling Nageer a “miscreant,” and saying that she was in need of “psychiatric help.”
Joining yesterday in condemnation of the Health Minister, the Guyana Human Rights Association yesterday stated that “the continued presence of Dr. Bheri Ramsaran as Minister of Health and candidate on the PPP/C electoral list, is the direct result of the feeble levels of accountability in our electoral and political systems.”
“Were Bheri Ramsaran facing a constituency-based fight for his seat, the furore he ignited by his abusive language and threats against Ms. Nageer, would have so doomed his chances that a swift resignation would have ensued.
“Instead, on the one occasion in political life when candidates should be directly exposed to voters, we have the spectacle of the party leadership resisting universal condemnation and protecting him.”
GHRA added, that the example of Bheri Ramsaran “highlights the real powerlessness of citizens and civic influence in our political system, particularly over MPs selected in their name by party leaderships.”
“Ramsaran’s survival as a Parliamentarian, much less as a Minister, rests entirely with the leadership of his party. The only avenue for a voter wishing to signal their rejection of him as a candidate is to reject the entire party list, thereby rendering him a liability to all other candidates on the List.”
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