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The Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) is making a desperate plea for justice and calls for an investigation into allegation of sexual grooming, rape, sodomy and forced sexual violation by a minister of government on a teenager. So said the Union in a release.
GTUC said the story told by the 16-year-old captures vividly the brutality of rape. “At 16-year-old, still a child, still innocent, she writes of her alleged sexual exploitation and brutalisation at the hands of Minister of Regional Development and Local Government Nigel Dharamlall.”
Last week news broke of the minister allegedly involved in sodomy, rape and oral sex of Indigenous pageant contestant, reportedly from the Essequibo Coast. According to the messages the teen loss her innocence virginity to the violator whom she reported told her “I am your first and from this day on you are mine and I own you.”
While the minister had remained mum to the allegation, President Irfaan said the state can only act based on a police report. There is a statement in the public, purportedly given and signed by the teen, dated 16th June, distancing herself from the information on the public, but not the incident.
According to the Union, the minister is a powerful man, who is no stranger to similar allegations made before, and the situation is one where a vulnerable child is allegedly exposed to sexual violence that no human being, no child, deserves to experience.
From the teen’s story, she was carefully groomed for her physical and emotional exploitation, allegedly by this minister, whom, though she was suspicious of based on advice of others, she developed trust from the way she and her mother were treated with respect in his presence, the Union noted.
Underscoring the gravity of the situation is the teen telling a story, in detail, of her vulnerability and efforts to avoid someone she perceived with predatory instincts but nevertheless fell prey, the union emphasised, and noted that the teen’s youth and inexperience were no match to her violator.
The story of rape, the Union said, is about raw, naked power domination, exploitation, and sexual depravity, and has called on society let the matter be swept under the carpet.
“Society should not sit quietly and accept the teen’s very articulate claim being swept aside without a thorough and independent investigation of the allegations made. To do otherwise would be a failure on behalf of this government, but most significantly a failure of society, Rights of the Child organisations, religious bodies, women’s organisations, every woman, and every mother and all those to whom she appealed for help, in her words drawing comparison to the 20 children killed in the Mahdia fire, don’t wait for her to died.”
GTUC advised that all know the teen alone cannot fight this battle, for the forces are already at work, not only to attack but to create conditions for her to withdraw her statement as a means of discrediting her story. So much so that one headline allegedly referred to her free and willing withdrawal as ‘flip flopping.’
“The teen spoke about the alleged perpetrator having direct conversation with her family, as she was sitting in a car, and reportedly blamed his behaviour on the devil. This is according to a report on a conversation she was having with someone, whom she described as Saddam, the Chief the Education Officer (CEO), sent to her by Minister Priya Manickchand.”
Further, GTUC pointed out from the telephone record seen, the CEO admitted to the teen “if it was his daughter, he would have been in jail.”
Making known the traumatised teen has pleaded to the wider society, including the diplomatic community, for help, GTUC said the organisation supports her plea for justice, not only for herself but on behalf of all the Indigenous children and the nation’s children who are subjected to such abuse by those in power. “This matter must not go un-investigated.”
GTUC is demanding President Ali fire the minister instantly because the damning allegation and his present portfolio make him unsuitable and that there be a criminal investigation.
“We call on the family and/or the teen, who vowed to be a protector of Indigenous girls, to file a police report. We further call for pro bono service from the legal fraternity to support this teen to make a police report and overcome the legal hurdles created by those operating behind the scenes of her ‘alleged’ free and willing recant to the police dated June 16, 2023, in Facebook post.”
According to the trade union federation there must be some members of the legal fraternity, sufficiently concerned about the well-being of this child and our nation’s children, willing to offer the protection and legal support to this brave teen, coming out as an activist in the hope of protecting others.
The Union has also called on the social work community to provide the teen and family with the required counselling and support because no doubt the alleged incident is traumatic for the victim and family.
