MINISTER of Social Protection, Amna Ally, is calling for further investigation and possible charges to be instituted against Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Commissioner, Robeson Benn for his alleged assault of a doctor on duty at the national recount centre
Last week, the media were informed that Benn allegedly shoved away the hand of Dr. Helen Imoff when she attempted to check his temperature at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC).
Dr. Imoff has worked for six years in the Public Health Ministry and has since resigned as a result of the incident which she described as “traumatising”. Recounting her feelings at the time, she said that although she was humiliated by the commissioner’s action, she remained calm and professional.
She said that she was taught by her parents to be respectful and to treat everyone with the highest regard and had not come into contact with such physical confrontation until the said day.
“I am still in shock, I was in the field risking my life so that everyone can be safe. To be treated with such violence while performing my duties in the most respectful way, is painful, both physically and emotionally,” Dr. Imoff posted on social media.
“To know that I had to endure this while on duty, have [sic] me thinking why did I become a doctor if this is how I am treated when I’m trying to help everyone to be safe. To my fellow colleagues in the medical fraternity, how would you have felt if this was [sic] you in the field? It is painful to know that there is nothing out there to protect us while on duty because had I reacted with violence, I would have lost my licence or even [be] locked up by now.”
She said that although she is aware that her resignation does not solve the problem, as a mother, wife, daughter and sister, she feels wholly disrespected by the act and does not wish the same on anyone she knows.
Asked to respond to the allegation, Commissioner Benn has simply dismissed the matter as “ridiculous.”
However, not wishing that such an act against a woman be swept under the carpet, the Social Protection Minister told this newspaper on Tuesday that she could not sit idly by while hearing of the plight of the woman who ought to have been respected, not only for the fact that she is a person, but a medical worker just doing her job.
“COVID-19 is no joke; COVID-19 is a pandemic and we have to do everything to guard against it. At the conference centre there are hundreds of people there for this recount and the government has done everything possible to protect and to have all persons safe,” she said.
“I really take umbrage to him assaulting a professional and nothing is being done by the police. So many days have passed and the police has [sic] not charged him yet. I am saying that if he was [sic] an ordinary citizen that [sic] had assaulted a woman, the police would have charged him and not because he is a GECOM Commissioner he must not be charged. As a matter of fact, as a GECOM Commissioner, he should have known better.”
Minister Ally is calling on the police to act without delay in investigating and arriving at a conclusion on the matter. The newspaper has also been made aware that a report on the matter was made to the commission.
