‘The President is my friend’ – female tenant

… Raid on Peter Ramsaroop’s properties

Nineteen year-old Nicole Ming who is at the centre of a saga involving Alliance For Change Chief Executive Officer, Peter Ramsaroop, during a media briefing admitted to being a close friend of President Bharrat Jagdeo.
Ramsaroop said that this fact caused him to serve her a notice of eviction.
The teen, in the company of her lawyer, Paul Braam, held a press conference at the Boardroom of the Guyana Times, yesterday, to add her voice to what has become a major issue.

Peter Ramsaroop (partly hidden) and Nicole Ming (in blue) at the rodeo last month

 

The teen however only agreed to speak to the media off camera. She needed to be persuaded to allow voice recording but she requested that these were not rebroadcast.

Ming said she moved in the apartment on March 15 last and first noticed the camera ‘blinking light’ some two weeks after occupying the apartment.
According to Ming she learnt of the apartment through one Jane Stuart whom she had met at a party at the Pulse Night Club.

Ming said the day after meeting Stuart at the night club she began receiving messages via Facebook but had no idea who the woman was.
According to a transcript of the Facebook conversation which was seen by this newspaper Stuart said she had introduced Ming to French billionaire, Nicolas Burggruen, at the club.
Stuart told Ming that the billionaire “plans to pick us up here with his jet to go to Paris”.

Ming then replied: “Hey Jane, wow I can’t believe you found me on FB from one name…Paris sound like fun”.

It was from then Ming admitted that she and Stuart struck up a friendship. The woman recalled that Stuart would always invite her out but she never made it since at the time she lived with her parents and was ‘not allowed to go out often”.
According to the Guyana Times employee she then told her new friend that she was looking for a place of her own to rent, and it was then she learnt of the Queenstown apartment.

The woman said that when she moved into the apartment she noticed three gadgets in her apartment, which she assumed were motion sensors. She said upon moving in she was told by both Ramsaroop and his fiancée that cameras were on the exterior of the building but never had any idea that cameras were in her apartment.

According to Ming she figured that one of the gadgets which was facing her bed was a camera some two weeks after moving into her apartment.
When asked why she did not report her suspicions earlier, the teen said she just turned the camera in another direction.

“Well you see I didn’t…basically… ok here is what happened. We tried all kind of things to see if it was a sensor, we then put our hands, throw things at it, and nothing happened”.

“And I was having a party one day so me and some friends, and we were joking around about the camera and she decided to show a piece of her skin raised up her top and the light start blinking”.

“When she stopped showing skin the lights came off and when she showed her skin again the light start blinking again”.

The woman said she was only made aware of the other cameras when the police raided the premises.

She also stated that only on one occasion did she give Ramsaroop permission to enter her apartment in her absence. Ming said that Ramsaroop had approached her informing her that the telephone services in the building were disrupted and that a technician needed to check the wire in her apartment.

The woman said she refused to leave her apartment open as Ramsaroop had requested, but it was only after she reminded him that he had spare keys to all the apartments that he agreed to use his keys when the technician was ready to do his work.

Ramsaroop has since denied ever entering the woman’s apartment in her absence.

Ming said after the search was conducted by the police she decided to move out which she did last Monday.

According to the woman, while packing her stuff on Monday, Stuart gave her a termination notice. She said that in the presence of her mother, Ramsaroop asked her to “settle the matter before it gets out of hand”.
The woman said that ever since then she has not been in contact with Ramsaroop or his fiancée. She said she however did see Ramsaroop and his lawyer yesterday at the apartment when she went to collect a stove she had left.
Responding to a question of what was her relationship with the president the woman said that was not relevant to the issue but stated that the president is her friend.

Also responding to reports in some sections of the media about Ramsaroop’s attitude towards her after seeing her with the president at a function the teen said, “He seemed perfectly fine the day after he saw me”.

Ming further declined to comment on question as it relates to her public appearance with the president at the recent Lethem rodeo and Bartica Regatta. When asked whether she believed that the entire incident is surrounded by politics, Ming said, “Ramsaroop will try to swing this entire story just to get out.”

She further noted that contrary to what Ramsaroop stated to the media about the camera being in the apartment because it was used as an office is far from the truth. The woman said she was told by Ramsaroop that the apartment was once a garage that was recently turned into an apartment.
The woman said that the police has not yet informed her as to what was found on the taperecorder recovered by the police. She however said that she hopes that if anything damaging is found she hopes it is immediately destroyed.

According to a police statement two hidden cameras were found in the woman’s bedroom and bathroom. According to the police one was found in a radio and one in a clock.

The raid was conducted as police probed allegations that Ramsaroop may have been filming the woman without her knowledge.

Ramsaroop has vehemently denied the allegations, which he claims are politically motivated to tarnish his image.