Media barred from attending Region 2 RDC meeting

Reporters, who turned up on Tuesday to cover the Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) Regional Democratic Council’s (RDC) monthly statutory meeting were barred from entering the Anna Regina, Essequibo Coast building.
This newspaper was informed by a security officer at the main gate of the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) building that he was given direct instructions by the Regional Executive Officer (RE

O), Dennis Jaikarran, not to allow the media into the compound.
Asked to meet with the REO, the security again refused the request.
This newspaper was told that at the scheduled statutory meeting, there were a number of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) supporters waiting inside the boardroom of the RDC waiting to protest the Regional Chairman, Vice Chairperson and People’s Progressive Party Councillors when they arrived. While the protestors were allowed into the RDC compound, the media was barred.
However, the Regional Chairman, Vice Chairman and PPP Councillors boycotted the meeting. When contracted, a PPP Councillor said that they made the decision to stay away from the meeting since, of recent, the meetings are being disrupted by protest action or walkouts by the REO.
At the last sitting in September when the Regional Chairman called the meeting to order, the REO took his seat and invited APNU supporters, who were inside the boardroom, to picket the sitting.
Reports are Vice Chair, Nandranie Coonjah had closed the main door to the RDC office when the REO and protesters left the boardroom.
However, the REO reportedly returned to the boardroom “annoyed”, according to the Vice Chairperson.
Coonjah said that the REO accused her of slamming the door as he and the protesters exited.
She alleged that it was then that the REO hit her on the shoulder, in the presence of the Regional Chairman, Davanand Ramdatt, and other Councillors.
As a result, a police report was made and the REO, Dennis Jaikarran, was questioned by Police over an assault report filed against him. Since the incident, Police on the Essequibo Coast said that advice was being sought from the Director of Public Prosecutions on the way forward.