– says allegations based on ‘hearsay’

Attorney General Basil Williams has refuted allegations that he gave an order or instructed ranks at the New Amsterdam Police Station, Berbice, to have rice farmers arrested should they proceed to harvest lands leased from the Mahaica-Mahaicony-Abary Agricultural Development Authority (MMA/ADA).

Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Basil Williams

In an article published on Thursday, October 22, 2015 in the Guyana Times, Rice farmer, Phillip Johnson of Seafield, West Coast Berbice complained about the ongoing battle involving rice farmers from Region Five and the Seafield Cooperative Society Limited continues. The farmer claimed that he, along with other farmers, were forced to pay the co-op members before harvesting their crops. He also claimed the farmers were being threatened.

Johnson told this newspaper he along with the other farmers went to the New Amsterdam Police Station to request police protection since the co-op members were threatening them when they go to harvest their crop.

The farmer claimed he was told by police that if he returned to the disputed farm land to harvest his crop he would be arrested, an order which he was told came from AG Williams.

However, AG Williams told this newspaper on Monday that he passed no such instruction to ranks at the New Amsterdam Police Station and is therefore rejecting such accusations since they confer “hearsay”. “I gave no order or instructions to anyone,” he stated.