A SENIOR driver attached to the Guyana National Newspaper Limited (GNNL) was lashed to the neck with a hammer during a dispute with one of his tenants.The incident took place on Thursday at around 11:30h at Lot 69 Durban Street Werk-en-Rust, Georgetown.

After reporting the matter to the Brickdam Police Station, the GNNL employee, Ronnie Rogers, was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH). While waiting to do an x-ray to the neck, Rogers told Guyana Chronicle that the incident stemmed from a confrontation which took place Wednesday night.

He explained that a neighbour had contacted the tenant’s girlfriend Wednesday night, informing her that electrical sparks were seen in the lower flat of the two-storied building. After some hesitation, Rogers said the tenant, who still has keys to the premises although he no longer lives there, arrived to check out the claims.

“He eventually turned up and the neighbour explained what was going on…He then went into the premises and turned off the main switch with the neighbour,” Rogers said.

While standing in the yard, he reportedly asked the tenant for his rent. “I asked him for the balance of the rent that the court asked him to give to me and he cuss up and verbally abuse me,” the GNNL employee said. The man reportedly owes the driver $250,000.

Rogers said on Thursday, while working he decided to visit the premises after receiving a call from the Guyana Power and Light (GPL), informing him that they were about to conduct further investigation. “When I reached there I saw him (the tenant) emptying the downstairs, so I took out my cell phone, to take out the pictures to send it to my lawyer, so he could see what was being done.”

Rogers said it was then he was attacked physically. “He rolled a pink table on me, so when he rolled the table to me I jumped back with my cell phone and he took a yellow hammer, a metal hammer and lash it to my neck,” he recalled.

Rogers reportedly fell in a nearby drain and lost consciousness. “When I catch myself two GPL employees were picking up me from the gutter,” he said. A report was subsequently made to the police and the driver was transported to the hospital by one of his colleagues.

He remains a patient in the public hospital as the police conduct their investigation.