Minister Patterson should be fired for ‘blatant lies’- Opposition Leader

Opposition Leader Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has called on Head of State, David Granger to immediately fire Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson over what he described as a repeated plethora of “blatant lies” in an attempt to defame the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and its approach to building a new Demerara River crossing.

Jagdeo told reporters Minister Patterson had not only lied in his utterances with regard to him having doled out all of the Petroleum Blocks available for exploration, but in his pronouncements over the new crossing for the Demerara River.

Speaking to the new river crossing, Minister Patterson during an Alliance For Change (AFC) press engagement this past week had insinuated that the Jagdeo-led Administration had not only gone to tender for a new bridge, but that he was peeved since the then favoured location would have seen his friend profiting.

Jagdeo said that the PPP commissioned a pre-feasibility study in 2013 at a time when he had already left office and had, in fact, invited Expressions of Interest for three different locations, a clear testament to the fact that the Administration had not yet settled on a location for the construction of the new infrastructure.

Jagdeo also spoke to Patterson’s reaction to his prediction of impending acts of corruption through the award of Exploration Licences to be issued to companies currently applying that share close linkages – through complex shareholding structures – with Ministers of Government.

According to the Opposition Leader, the ploy employed by Patterson was, in fact, a strategy to deflect from the substance of the allegations laid in relation to the corrupt practices and focus attention on further misrepresentation of fact.

Misrepresentation, he said, is readily reported by the Kaieteur News, which the former President accused of being in the pockets of the regime as an outlet to peddle misinformation.

Still on the lies exhibited by Minister Patterson, Jagdeo drew reference to his assertions that the PPP/Civic Administration under the former President had given out all the licences – information that could have readily been had since that is available at the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC).