Latest update November 8th, 2024 1:00 AM
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Jagdeo has questionable wealth, extensive water front property
In the wake of revelations detailing what former President Bharrat Jagdeo really paid for his extensive
Former president Bharrat Jagdeo
tracts of land at Sparendaam, East Coast Demerara, A Partnership for National Unity/ Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) candidate, Khemraj Ramjattan, has labelled the former President’s actions as ‘totally abominable’ and a rip off for the people of Guyana.
The full page ad, which had stated that Jagdeo’s continued presence on the campaign trail was merely to protect the questionable wealth he had accumulated, detailed that Jagdeo in fact had paid $5M per acre or $114 per sq ft, when the ordinary man would have paid $317 per sq ft, three times more than what it cost Jagdeo. Remigrants would have also paid more than ten times the price of the former president, some $1,111 per sq ft.
The advertisement also presented the argument of Jagdeo’s expansive mansion as well as the unlimited benefits he currently enjoys. As part of the ex-president’s benefits he signed into law before leaving office, Jagdeo has unlimited personal and household staff, including attendants and gardeners.
According to the ad, there is also full time personal security and services of the professional guard services, along with an unspecified number of motor vehicles to be maintained by the state. He also enjoys a tax exemption status identical to those of a serving president, meaning no tax on property, income or capital
AFC’s Khemraj Ramjattan
gain.
The ad went on to list his monthly package of $5 million as equivalent to 125 persons working for the minimum wage or 400 old age pensioners.
Ramjattan, a co-founder of the AFC, summed up the issue as an “abomination and a rip off” stating that though the former president spoke extensively on the campaign trail of ‘kick down the door’ policies of the Opposition, he was practicing the exact thing.
“This is how the banditry is being committed by them. (They are) people who have accused us of kicking down the doors when they are the kick down the doors bandits.”
Describing it as nothing less than larceny, Ramjattan stated that they were literally ‘kicking down the doors of institutions.’
“It is appropriation (when) they call it economics. And when someone steals it is called larceny. It is totally abominable and we have to ensure it comes to a halt on May 11.”
APNU political candidate and Public Works point man, Joseph Harmon, also weighed in, describing the former president’s actions as a travesty. He referred to it as a scheme concocted by the PPP/C to purchase large tracts of land, speculate and then resell the land for exorbitant prices.
“The PPP/C has shared out the prime land to their friends, at far less what is the ordinary price. Ordinary
APNU’s Joseph Harmon
people are paying more for small parcels of land, than what Jagdeo is paying for large tracts.”
While on the campaign trail, Jagdeo had been flagged by the Media Monitoring Unit (MMU) for making comments deemed ‘racially divisive’ in their monthly report. Chartered Accountant Christopher Ram subsequently filed a criminal charge against the former Head of State. Jagdeo, however, never showed up to answer the charge at the Whim Magistrate’s court.
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