First Couple relationship
-- President promises explanations within two weeks
By Mark Ramotar
Guyana Chronicle
April 12, 2007
PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday indicated that in “two weeks time” the public will know about the status of the relationship between himself and his wife, First Lady Varshnie Jagdeo.
In response to a question at a news conference at the Office of the President, on whether there was a rift between the two, Mr. Jagdeo responded: “I will deal with that within two weeks. Within two weeks you will hear about that from me.”
“In two weeks time you will get a chance to ask me that again…and then you will get all the explanations,” the President stressed.
Mr. Jagdeo also confirmed that his Protocol Officer at the Office of the President, Col Francis Abraham has been sent home but said this had nothing to do with seating for the First Lady in the Presidential Box at the Guyana National Stadium at Providence during one of the Super Eight matches in the Cricket World Cup (CWC) tournament played here.
He said Abraham, his Aide-de-Camp for a long time, was sent home because of the regular intrusion of unauthorised and uninvited persons into what supposed to be a tightly secured Presidential Box.
“He (Abraham) has been sent home until further notice. I didn’t want to get into this because I still have not decided what to do with him as yet, so he has not been dismissed or anything of the sort,” the President told reporters.
Noting that there were “tons of people every day breaching the Presidential lounge”, and alluding to the elaborate security arrangements in and around the stadium on match days, President Jagdeo said he anticipated that the Presidential Box would have been the most secured area in the stadium.
“What happened is that several days I saw a number of people who were not accredited to the box. I asked (Abraham) about this and (he) said they were coming through some side elevator - the elevator that goes upstairs and these people were flowing into the lounge.”
“I said to (him) but you told me that this was a secured area and I even took my security numbers down to two, and I give them invitations so that they didn’t have to be standing around. The Opposition Leader also asked for his security too and we said no, because it is a secure area. But every day we are seeing these people in the Presidential Box.”
“Now I had my Protocol Officer (Abraham) and the Protocol Officer at Foreign Affairs Ministry accredited there on all the days, so on this particular day, there were some issues there with someone who came with my wife and some people…and I am standing there with Henry Jeffrey (Minister of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation) and they brought a couple from an embassy to take pictures with me…so I asked (Abraham) how these people are in here because the letter of invitation that went out to the embassy said it is not transferable and it is for the Ambassador and his wife.”
President Jagdeo said he was told that the “people downstairs don’t know them” and he subsequently asked his Protocol Officer what was it that he was doing in the box when he should have been downstairs ensuring that those who were invited were allowed to enter and deny entry to those not invited.
President Jagdeo said Abraham started to make “excuses” and he instructed him to “go downstairs”.
“He (Abraham) then proceeded to leave the place (stadium) with the tickets and everything and went off, so other people who were coming who should have been now accredited couldn’t get in.”
“So he walked off. He was offended that I sent him downstairs. He was here to work and not to watch cricket. That was the problem,” the President said.
“He walked off and so I said don’t come back until further notice,” Mr. Jagdeo said.
President Jagdeo said the sending home of Col. Abraham had nothing to do with the First Lady as other reports suggested.
“There was this issue through some people who came with her (Varshnie),” the President said but hastened to add that this was a long time before the incident with the couple from the embassy.
The President admitted that he was concerned about the incident with the First Lady but said this took place prior to the one with the couple from the embassy.
“That was another incident and that was one from long before; the one that sparked it all was the person from the embassy – who they brought to take pictures with me and his wife, and then I said – go downstairs so that you can know the people who are coming here.”