One week after the President announced that Nigel Dharamlall has resigned as a Minister of Government and a Member of Parliament, the National Assembly has still not received any letter of resignation from him.
While the Speaker of the National Assembly Manzoor Nadir, opted to offer no comment on the issue, other officials at the National Assembly indicated that no resignation letter has been received.
The embattled Nigel Dharamlall reportedly tendered his resignation hours after the DPP advised that the rape allegations leveled against him by a school girl could not make its way to the Court after the complainant asked the Police to no longer pursue the matter.
The teenage girl in an earlier statement to the Police in the presence of counselors had detailed her allegations of being raped and sexually assaulted by the Government Minister at his home last December.
While the Government waited on the “process to work”, Dharamlall announced initially that he was proceeding on administrative leave, then reportedly informed the President that he would be leaving his Ministerial and Parliamentary positions altogether.
In an announcement from Trinidad and Tobago last week, President Ali said he accepted the resignation.
At his press conference today, President Irfaan Ali said he will be making moves by the end of this week to make some reassignments to cover the post of Minister of Local Government. The Minister within the Ministry of Local Government, Anand Persaud has been performing fully in the position.
There have been calls for an independent investigation of the claims made by the school girl and the way the investigation by the Police and the Office of the DPP was handled. The President dismissed those calls as disrespectful.
“I think it’s insulting to say that our system is not independent. From day one, the President of Guyana made it clear that the system will be allowed to work. In every country there is a system, starting with the Child Care and Protection Agency , the Human Service [Ministry], Blossom [Inc], the police, the DPP, these are all independent agencies. These are all independent agencies that are working not only in Nigel Dharamlall’s case but working in many other cases in the country”, President Ali said today.
Although the announcement of the resignation was made, protests have been continuing for justice to be done in the matter, with many groups believing that the the teen might have been pressured into asking the Police to no longer continue with the matter.
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