–Dr Jagdeo blasts party over recent press statement on vehicle storage facility at Swan

PEOPLE’S Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has blasted the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR)/A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) for its constant tendency of elevating rumours to “facts.”
Despite the PNCR being a major political party over Guyana’s history, the party has been hauled over the coals for its contradictory statements and plans that are not economically viable.
Dr. Jagdeo, during a press conference on Thursday at the party’s headquarters, once again, called attention to the Opposition’s policy positions which, according to him, lack research.
After the PPP General Secretary, who also serves as Guyana’s Vice-President, pointed out the Opposition’s jack-in-the-box economics, he then highlighted a recent press statement that was made by the party concerning a vehicle storage facility in Swan Village on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway.

Aside from operating like a “cake shop,” according to Dr Jagdeo, the Opposition has constantly shown that it is being led by its nose.
He said: “It picks up snippets of rumours and convert these into policy positions, and then would embarrassingly take public positions on the basis of garnered rumours.”
Dr. Jagdeo later related: “Every rumour becomes a fact for APNU and they issued two party press releases on the rumour.”

On July 16, 2024, the coalition-aligned Rickford Burke took to social media with claims that the Commissioner of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) was renting land at Swan, Region Four, to the force for millions for the storage of derelict vehicles.
The Office of the Opposition Leader then picked up this issue and in a statement on July 22, 2024, noting: “The PPP government must address the question of the vehicle storage area at Swan on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway. It is reported that the property belongs to Acting Commissioner of Police, Mr. Clifton Hicken, who is allegedly paid by the Guyana Police Force for the storage facility.”

On July 24, 2024, the PNCR reissued the press release on its social media page, accompanied by aerial photos of the location.
Later on July 24, 2024, APNU+AFC Parliamentarian, former Public Infrastructure Minister under APNU+AFC administration and current AFC Chairman, David Patterson, was quoted in the local media as saying, “Under my ministry we had put a plot of land somewhere there. There was a dumpsite, I had built a road and those things like that because of course we had a lot of derelict vehicles.

“I did set up an area to dump derelict vehicles…through Walter Willis, we would have gone into the Land and Surveys Commission; this was one of the first initiatives when we were cleaning up the city in 2015, we realised that there were a lot of derelict cars and vehicles around the city and then we said fair enough, the ministry through Walter Willis would have [sic] applied for a piece of land and that was the land that was given.”