Former President, Cheddi Jagan would’ve been first to condemn red house deal- Ramjattan

Expressing his support for the revocation of the Red House deal with the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre Inc. (CJRCI) on Friday, Leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Khemraj Ramjattan said it is one way of bringing back law and order.

On December 29, 2016,  President David Granger ordered that the lease for The Red House to the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre Incorporated (CJRCI) be revoked and that the occupants vacate the property since the existing lease held by the CJRCI is invalid on several grounds, including that there is no evidence that the President of the day had sanctioned it. He also directed that the building be assigned to house “The National Trust of Guyana, its staff, stores and equipment”, currently housed in the Valerie Rodway Building on Carmichael Street.

““The thing is out of context, the emotionalism, the obfuscation, that then tells you ‘But wah y’all tekkin away the thing for? Is Cheddi Jagan.’ Well Cheddi would’ve been the first to condemn the preservation of this documents in stolen property, the misappropriated property” Ramjattan told a Press Conference at the AFC Headquarters.

He added that “more and more as we study the history, it was always intended to be a temporary place for the laying of those documents but we got (Opposition Leader, Bharrat) Jagdeo and we got (Opposition MP Anil) Nandlall coming forth as angels that ‘this should not have been done.”

Red House has been leased to the CJRCI for GYD$12,000 per year for 99 years since 2012.

After the order was issued for the revocation of the lease, Chairman of the Management Committee of the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre Incorporated (CJRCI) Mr. Hydar All took the matter to High Court before Chief Justice (Ag), Madame Yonette Cummings-Edwards.

Both sides were given the opportunity to make a case and the hearing in relation to the court case is fixed for February 20, 2017, while the CJRCI continue to occupy the building.