Police order Ray Daggers off OP lawns

May 30, 2023 News

…as 65-yr-old commences fast against ‘barefaced’ Exxon contract

Kaieteur News – Ray Daggers early Monday morning commenced his 12-hour per day fast for Guyanese to get a fair deal from its natural resources but it was not without confrontation from police.

Daggers sitting, while a gentleman who joined him stands alongside

A police officer advising Daggers that he cannot sit on the grass parapet in front of the president’s office.

Daggers wanted to sit on a chair on the grass parapet in front of the President’s Office at Vlissengen Road. However, police told him that he could not sit there and if he wanted to continue his fast, he must do so across the road opposite the office.

Kaieteur News was present when an officer was explaining to the man why he could not be on the parapet. He explained to police that he had gotten permission from an officer in charge of the Presidential Guard stationed at the President’s office. The police officer was polite and asked the Presidential Guard ranks to confirm with their superior if Daggers could continue his fast there.

Kaieteur News left shortly after but Daggers later said he encountered about nine confrontations with the police before he was finally removed after midday. He does not want any trouble with the police and said that he is unsure of where he will conduct day two of his fast.

Daggers related that he is reluctant to sit opposite the office because of the weather. “It’s very messy there,” Daggers said.

Meanwhile, the man who walked 12 days from Moleson Creek, East Corentyne, Berbice, Region Six to Charity on the Essequibo Coast, Region Two for a change of the “lop-sided ExxonMobil contract”, said that he has chosen to go on a “dry fast” (a fast without food and water) because of an “observation” he made during his walk.

“I am fasting because of an observation from the walk I did. And my main observation is that 100 % of the people of this nation are united, are together against all the contracts in the extractive industries, the gold, the diamond, the oil, the manganese, all the people are united,” Daggers told this newspaper.

However, Daggers noted that victimisation from the country’s leaders is what prevents them from speaking out for a change of the contracts signed in the country’s extractive sector.  “That is the saddest reality I have ever faced in a nation, where the people fear their leaders,” Daggers said.

He hopes that his fast will not only make way for the change but motivates citizens to stand up to their leaders and not allow themselves to be enslaved with “handouts”. Daggers told Kaieteur News on Saturday that the fast will be done for 12-hours daily Monday to Friday. He intends to continue until the contract is changed in favour of Guyana.

• Change, dry fast, Lopsided ExxonMobil Contract, President’s office, Ray Daggers