– Imran Khan urges AFC after he, wife threatened

ALLIANCE For Change (AFC) Executive Member, Imran Khan, says that he and his wife have received threats against their involvement in the Party from a “hooligan” and “thug” empowered by another AFC Executive.

On Thursday in a statement to the media, Khan, also the government’s Director of Public Information (DPI), stated that “criminals and misfits are infiltrating the AFC with a view to changing its character”.

Recently, things have been heating up in the camps of the AFC as delegates prepare for the Party’s National Conference which will elect new leaders and determine the party’s general strategy.

Khan described the AFC as “Guyana’s leading liberal and progressive political party” expressing his confidence that it will continue to grow in membership and stature following the weekend’s conference.

However, he revealed that recent internal party “skirmishes” have caused him to become concerned that some in the party place self-interest and personal entitlement above their party, the coalition and the country at large. In the statement he detailed the specific reasons behind his concerns.

“During the PPP regime, when I lived and worked in Antigua, and engaged in political activism against the PPP government, it was reported to me that a former PPP President had vowed that as long as he was in charge I would never work in Guyana again,” Khan began.

“Now, a well-known hooligan, thug and convicted felon who is being cuddled, sheltered and protected by a very senior executive of my own political party has threatened me and my wife that when his benefactor attains a certain political office my wife and I will be ‘chased back to Antigua’. This senior party executive is fuelling this thug and his co-conspirators with alcohol and political promises to camp outside the party headquarters on a daily basis and abuse and intimidate persons who are considered not to be supportive of their cause.”

He stated that the development is one which ought to be of serious concerns to party members and the wider public. This is on the basis that many have placed their trust in the AFC to represent their interest and not in the personal motives of a “small band of self-serving, entitled persons”.

Khan stated that another “political thug”, a known supporter of the said “high official”, has attempted to have his name removed from the delegates list and promised not to rest until this is achieved.

He further relayed that “agents and collaborators of this high executive” have also conspired to have his wife, Secretary of Women For Change (WFC), removed as a WFC delegate at the very last minute.

“A battle had to be waged for her to be restored as a delegate,” Khan said.

Meanwhile, speaking on efforts to remove him as a delegate, he added: “So far he has not been successful. I shall not be prevented from fulfilling my duties as a delegate to the National Conference this weekend.”

Khan said in the statement that the unusual form of politics showcased is “the politics of stench and destruction” which the AFC must rid itself of least it infects the entire party.

He expressed the hope that the “good people” who make up the membership of the AFC will understand the occurrences and act to thwart the plans of such individuals who aim to cause division and destruction within the party.

“It is indeed bewildering that someone who played a central role in birthing, nurturing and building a political movement could be so eager to destroy and endanger that very movement in the pursuit of naked ambition on the basis purely of entitlement. Dangerously, criminals and misfits are infiltrating the AFC with a view to changing its character and direction and the party must take decisive and condign action to weed them out with haste,” Khan said.

At the National Conference on Saturday, June 15, 2019, AFC delegates will elect a party leader, chairman, vice-chair, general secretary and 12 national executive members.