-plans to take legal action

-party-goers arrested at Cigars and Cognac bar

LESS than 24 hours after he was arrested by ranks of the National COVID-19 Task Force (NCTF), the proprietor of SleepIn Hotel and Casino on Church Street, Georgetown, Clifton Bacchus, was taken into custody on Saturday night for again breaching the national curfew.

The Guyana Chronicle was reliably informed that the task force executed an operation on Saturday night to ensure that popular night spots on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD) and Georgetown were closed in accordance with the national curfew. Ranks visited the Cigars and Cognac bar located at Melanie on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD), where they arrested several party-goers for being in breach of the curfew.

In Georgetown, following an operation carried out the night before, members of the Task Force visited the SleepIn Hotel and Casino and, at around 22:41 hrs, this newspaper received reports that the proprietor, Clifton Bacchus was arrested.

On Friday, the night before, Bacchus was also arrested by members of the Task Force while two bartenders were detained in addition to 10 Chinese nationals – eight males and two females– who were at the casino. On that night as well, at Club Altitude, which is located at Sandy Babb Street, Kitty, the proprietor, Meer Rahaman, along with ten male and female patrons were detained. In Charlotte Street, Bourda, at the Kairos Bar, only the manager, Mark Alleyne was detained. Finally, at the Tower Hotel on Main Street, the ranks detained the Bartender, Delon Moffett and his assistant, Akeem Carmichael at the Hotel’s Club Privilege.

The Guyana Chronicle understands that these businesses were operating in breach of the national curfew, which is from 22:30 hrs to 04:00 hrs each day. Additionally, as per the COVID-19 guidelines, food services, restaurants and bars can only operate during the hours of 04:00 hrs and 21:30 hrs (9:30 pm).

COMPLETE SERVICE

In an invited comment on Sunday, Bacchus told this newspaper that the majority of the patrons at the hotel’s bar are also customers who are staying at the hotel. As such, he reasoned that these patrons are expecting a “complete service” where they can get food and drinks at the hotel’s bar, before retiring to their rooms at night. He emphasised that the national COVID-19 guidelines permit the operations of hotels, and that service forms part of his operations. Bacchus stressed that he does not operate a “penitentiary” whereby he has to force his customers to retire to their rooms by a certain time.

“If a man pays me money, he’s looking out for a certain service. If he goes on the road after a certain time well, he has to deal with the police, that doesn’t have nothing to do with me, but if the man is here, he is paying to be here,” Bacchus said, adding: “If the man goes to (a named city bar) then that is a pure bar and that has to be closed by 10:30 (pm) and the man has to go long his way.”

Bacchus contended that if the local authorities do not wish for his bar to be opened, then the gazetted COVID-19 measures ought to reflect that, so that he would be able to revise his operations and the offers he makes to his customers.

“You can’t tell me open the hotel- because opening the hotel is alright- and then people coming to the hotel and you’re trying to lock up people in the hotel because they’re sitting down there (at the bar),” the businessman lamented.

On Sunday, Bacchus said that he will be taking legal action against the NCTF since he believes that he was detained wrongfully on both nights. Over the past few months, the NCTF has been issuing warning letters to businesses operating in breach of the COVID-19 guidelines. In an invited comment on Saturday, Director of the NCTF, Colonel Nazrul Hussain had noted that since previous efforts geared at bringing these businesses into compliance have failed, the Task Force will now arrest and charge business persons whose entities are acting in contravention of the gazetted measures.

He clarified that the Friday night to Saturday morning operation did not shut down the operations of the businesses, but he lamented that since these businesses are “repeatedly flouting the guidelines”, stronger actions have become necessary. Governing the operations of the local authorities within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic is the 1934 Public Health Ordinance.

This ordinance, according to Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, S.C, is an archaic piece of legislation that is outmoded and unfitting to reflect the current realities of society. Under the COVID-19 Emergency Measures, any person who fails to comply with the measures commits an offence under Section 152 of the Public Health Ordinance and is liable on summary conviction to the penalty provided under that section.

Any person found guilty of an offence, under Section 152, shall, unless some other penalty is provided thereof, be liable to a penalty not exceeding $50, or, in default of payment thereof, to imprisonment with or without hard labour for any term not exceeding two months.

In the event that it is a continuing offence, Section 152(2) of the Ordinance provides that the offender shall be liable to a further penalty not exceeding $10 for everyday which the offence continues, and in default of payment, to imprisonment, for any period not exceeding six months. Cognisant of the outdated nature of this ordinance, a new Public Health Act is being formulated.