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Toshaos selected date for opposition reception – Jagdeo
“We got a feedback from the NTC that Monday would be available”. These were the words of the opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo as he indicated that the National Toshaos Council told them that Monday would be available for them to attend a meeting/reception at his Church Street Office.
Over the past few days issues circulated in the media over the apparent disrespect that occurred during the NTC conference held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, Liliendaal, ECD.
One of these issues was the invitations at the conference from members of the Opposition Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) to the visiting Toshaos.
According to the invitation the Toshaos were invited to attend a dinner Reception hosted by the leader of the opposition at his Office on Monday evening.
However, on this same date President David Granger also issued an invitation for the indigenous leaders to attend a Cocktail reception at State House.
Yesterday when Jagdeo addressed the media in his statutory press conference, he claimed that his party did not intentionally issue invitations to sabotage the President’s Cocktail Reception.
He said that a letter was written and addressed to the NTC Chair asking to indicate a suitable day and time to meet with the Toshaos.
“I have here a letter addressed to the Chair of the NTC dated Wednesday the 2nd of October… And the letter says in one of its paragraphs, we therefore appreciate if the NTC could suggest to us an appropriate day and time preferably evening for a meeting reception,” stated Jagdeo.
He also claimed that the letter was signed Pauline Sukhai, former Member of Parliament.
The opposition leader went to say that not only was the party given a feedback that Monday evening would be available, but it also reviewed the conference programme agenda and noted that no activity was planned for Monday.
He further added that according to the agenda, the President’s cocktail Reception was slated for Friday.
Later yesterday afternoon, Kaieteur News tried to contact the Chairman to clarify the issue but he was unreachable.
However, this publication did succeed in speaking with one of the Toshaos who participated in the conference.
The Toshao who asked for her identity be left anonymous, related that indeed the President’s reception was scheduled to be held on Friday according to the programme agenda.
She also told this newspaper that the opposition members had handed out invitations to her colleagues on Sunday, and due to her being not present at the time the invitation was given to her early Monday morning.
The Toshao further added the she along with her colleagues were handed invitations by members of the ruling government on Monday, around “midday”.
The Indigenous leader also said that the invitations given to them by the opposition were addressed with their individual names while the invitation handed by the current government did not address them individually.
To her surprise, she said it was then that she noticed that President’s cocktail reception would be held that same evening instead of the scheduled Friday.
A programme agenda was also handed to reporters to clarify her statement.
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