Essequibo Coast man gets 12 months on breaking into pensioner’s home

Forty-eight-year-old Gary Johnson of Lot 43 Danielstown, Essequibo Coast, was found guilty of break and enter and larceny and was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment.

He committed the crime between October 3 and October 9, 2022, on the dwelling house of John Lewis.

He reportedly broke into the 70-year-old man’s home and stole a 32-inch flatscreen television, valued at $60,000, and a Black and Decker vacuum.

When Johnson’s trial concluded last Friday before Magistrate Esther Sam at the Suddie Magistrate's Court, he was found guilty as charged and sentenced to

“We all want a society which is free, prosperous, socially just, globally competitive and which serves every Guyanese equitably. Every Guyanese must have: a chance for a good education, access good paying jobs, be able to start their own businesses, raise and provide for a family, own their own homes, live in a safe and secure environment and retire with dignity. Every Guyanese must have full access to quality healthcare, safe water, be able to participate in sports and recreation, and freely practise their religion and culture.”

Now, we gotta accept that all of the above can’t be accomplished right away. If Rome wasn’t built in a day, so also the new Guyana, no?? In your Eyewitness’s estimate, we gotta look at whether the country’s heading in the promised direction – and how efficiently. This means are we getting the bang for the buck – the buck being quite enlarged because of oil revenues. “Oil and Gas will provide significant earnings and if managed well, will bring transformational opportunities for all Guyanese.”

So – as we learnt from the “Sound of Music” – let’s begin at the very beginning!! Are we “free”?? Now hopefully, this being no existentialist trick question, the last time your Eyewitness looked he didn’t notice anybody being thrown into the clinker in violation of their constitutionally guaranteed constitutional freedoms!! Your Eyewitness does hope, however, that the electionheist cases will be finished soon so that some will be jailed for trying to remove HIS freedom to choose his government!!

Now while we still have a far way to go – since the more we get, the more we’ll want!! – we gotta admit that with all the other promises – prosperity, owning homes, etc – we’ve moved in that direction.

But we gotta prod them, no??

…at Sugar imprisonment.

Now in the manifesto, the PPP DID promise to “reopen estates” – plural. But we now know that only Rose Hall will be reopened – later this year. But, your Eyewitness isn’t gonna sit here and say that contracts can’t be amended. He’s not Exxon, after all!! He understands that circumstances change and plans must be altered to accommodate those changes. In the case of the sugar estates, he’s more committed to the well-being of those workers thrown into the breadlines by the PNC – against the recommendations of their own CoI.

Meanwhile, in a separate case, a 29-year-old domestic worker of Lot 69 Fifth Street La Bonne Intention, East Coast Demerara (ECD), was charged with simple larceny.

Indira Mahadeo appeared before Magistrate Fabayo Azore at the Vigilance Magistrate’s Court where she pleaded guilty to the charge. Elisha Campbell is the victim. In the end, she was fined $75,000 with an alternative to serve six months in jail.

He hopes that a roster was made of all the 7000 workers – 5000 from GuySuCo and 2000 from private cane farmers – and those still jobless will be offered relief. The social dislocations in the plantation economy have been devastating. Your Eyewitness notices some rejigging of the management organisational chart – with some experienced heads being brought back.

With something like sugar, institutional memory is critical since there’s nary a contingency that wasn’t faced in the 400 years of the industry!!

…down from the sky

The frenemies US and China are at it again!! While cooperating to get 86% of our oil revenues – Exxon and CNOOC – the US just shot down a Chinese spy balloon that floated over Alaska and the continental USA, gathering data!!