Church members handed over recovered money to police

Jun 15, 2009 News

East Coast four vehicle smash-up…

Thanks to some members of the Bethel Wesleyan Church at Bachelor’s Adventure on the East Coast of Demerara, some of the victims of last Saturday’s accident may be able to recover a large quantity of cash that was initially lost.
Kaieteur News was told that a church member handed over a bag containing the cash to a police officer at the scene, even as several other persons were looting items from one of the mini buses involved in the four vehicle smash-up.
The cash was taken from the bus in which Parmanand and Lalowtie Dass were traveling.
They were apparently returning from conducting sales at one of the many East Coast Demerara markets and their vehicle was loaded with groceries.
Speaking to this newspaper yesterday, church member Aluko Blackman said that he was standing on the road when the accident occurred.
He said that he rushed to assist the passengers in the bus that had turned over, since some of the persons in that vehicle knew him and were calling out to him for assistance.
According to Blackman, several persons also rushed to the scene and instead of assisting passengers, they proceeded to grab several currency bills that had spilled unto the road from the mini bus conductor.
He insisted that they were not members of the church.
Blackman said that he subsequently went across to the other bus where Parmanand and Lalowtie Dass were pinned down.
“They were in a terrible state and we assisted them. At that time, we did not know that money was in the bus, but there were some other people who had opened the back of the bus and taking out stuff,” Blackman said.
According to Blackman, a police officer arrived on the scene and she shouted to the persons and tried to take control of the situation.
He told this newspaper that one of the ‘brothers’ from the church eventually found the bag with the money while putting back some of the items which had fallen out of the crashed mini bus.
“He gave it to the officer. When word of what he did reached the ears of bystanders, some guys from Melanie started to assault him, saying how he stupid. Later I heard persons telling a reporter that people from the church had looted the bus,” Blackman stated.
His story was supported by another member of the church, Clint Hamilton, who told Kaieteur News that at no time were members of the church involved in any looting of the buses.
Hamilton said that there were only a few members at the church attending a meeting.
Previous reports had stated that Hamilton was driving his vehicle when the accident occurred, but in fact Hamilton’s car was parked outside the church compound when the out of control truck slammed into it.