TWENTY-FIVE-year-old University of Guyana (UG) student, Sheneza Jafferally, come October 8, 2019, is expected to go on trial for allegedly issuing bomb threats to the university.

Jafferally, called Diane, of Cummings Lodge, East Coast Demerara, is before Magistrate Rushell Liverpool at the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court.

The defendant is currently out on $10,000 High Court bail and is represented by attorney-at-law Latchmie Rahamat.

The young woman had, on February 11, 2019, made her first court appearance before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court and pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Particulars of the charge alleged that, on February 5, 2019, at Cummings Lodge, Jafferally sent – by means of a public telecommunication device system, for the purpose of causing needless anxiety to the staff and students of the UG – a message which she knew to be false.

The chief magistrate had transferred Jafferally’s matter to the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court.

On February 5 and 6, 2019, bomb threats were reportedly made to the university’s Turkeyen Campus, forcing the cancellation of classes. Classes resumed on Monday, February 11, 2019.

The Guyana Police Force (GPF), through its commissioner, deputy crime chief and a team of officers, met with members of the UG administration and, days later, arrested Jafferally.

According to a source, based on the investigations conducted by the police, a telephone number belonging to the student was linked to the number from which the bomb threats were allegedly made to the university.

Jafferally, who goes by the nicknames ‘Shelly’ and ‘Diane’, is the niece of former People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Region Six Member of Parliament (MP) and current Region Five Campaign Manager, Faizal Jafferally.

The university’s administration, as a result of the scare, took matters seriously and evacuated the campus of students and staff and shut its doors.

The threat at the university came even as a string of online threats directed at several city schools had been on-going for weeks.

Threats were initially made against the School of the Nations and resulted in the school’s director being shot in both arms, while he was entering his home.