“I did no such thing” – Nandlall denies trying to block Law School establishment

Jan 27, 2017 News

Opposition Member of Parliament (MP) and Former Attorney General Anil Nandlall has

Opposition MP and Former AG Anil Nandlall

categorically refuted incumbent Attorney General Basil Williams’ claim that he (Nandlall) had written to the Council of Legal Education (CLE) in an attempt to block the establishment of a law school in Guyana.
AG Williams had stated at a recent press conference that the act was malicious and corrosive. However, in a subsequent release, Mr. Nandlall emphatically rejected the claim made by his successor.
“I did no such thing! I made my concerns public about this proposed law school a few weeks ago. At that time, the Attorney General responded and said that Guyana has permission from the Council of Legal Education of the West Indies to establish this law school. I now see a shift in his position. He now harks back to a permission granted by the Council twenty years ago.”
The AG had earlier said he was made aware of this attempt to block the process when he was contacted by CLE Chairman and Trinidadian Attorney Reginald Armour, SC. Williams said that the matter would be addressed when he attends the meeting of the Executive Committee being held today and tomorrow in Jamaica. The aim of that visit, he disclosed, was to further discuss the establishment of the law school and to sensitize the Jamaican public about the impending establishment and how it will work. He had also said that such attempts (to block its establishment) “cannot stop an idea whose time has come”.
Nandlall in his response stated that, “As an Executive Member of the Council of Legal Education, from December 2011 to May 2015, I know that the permission granted to Guyana twenty years ago is no longer extant and has been long overtaken by other decisions.
Being well acquainted with the modus operandi of the Attorney General, I suspected that he was misleading the nation when he said that Guyana has the permission of the Council to establish this current law school”.
Further, Nandlall said he wrote the CLE and got the following response from the CLE Chairman Reginald Armour.
“The facts of the media reports of the MOU were last raised in the meeting of CLE in Antigua and Barbuda in September 2016, and will be further discussed by CLE at the meeting of the Executive Committee on the 27th January 2017 in Jamaica.”
Nandlall said his interpretation of that letter was different to what Williams had stated. Actually, Nandlall said he interpreted that the Council of Legal Education is learning of this Memorandum of Understanding in the press; therefore, the Council has not even been formally informed of this matter and accordingly, could not have given this project its permission.
“It is clear that our Attorney General has a peculiar allergy to the truth. I do not know for how long the President will allow this circus to continue at 95 Carmichael Street,” Nandlall stated in conclusion.