Jagdeo hints at divorce
Kaieteur News
April 12, 2007
President Bharrat Jagdeo has hinted that he and First Lady Varshnie may be headed for the divorce court.
However, in two weeks time, the public will get a definitive word on the status of this relationship.
The Head of State made this candid commitment to reporters yesterday during a media conference called to field questions and provide clarifications on the recently concluded Cricket World Cup matches.
The promise was made in response to a question posed by a media operative as to the status of the couple's marriage against the backdrop that the two are hardly seen together in public anymore.
“You will know in two weeks' time what the position is between us, I promise that I will inform you then, and you will be able to ask me any question then,” the President informed frankly. Public appearances as a couple became almost non-existent in recent times and speculations were rife that marital problems existed in the president's home.
Meanwhile, Chief of Protocol to President Jagdeo, Colonel Francis Abraham has been sent home on leave.
According to the President, this decision was taken following frequent security breaches in the Presidential Box at the National Stadium during the recent CWC fixtures. The President explained that despite assurances that the Box would be secure, each match saw between 13-15 unauthorized persons in the area. He noted that this proved a major security breach.
“Prior to the matches, I was assured that the Box would be so secure that the security arrangements in place for myself, the Opposition Leader and the Prime Minister were actually downsized. However, every day scores of unauthorized persons came into the stand through some side elevator.”
He noted that he even had cause on one occasion to ask an authorized parent who had gone into the stand with a child to leave since it was against the rules.
On the day of the incident, the President said that someone, in the company of an official from a consulate, came up to him and took his photograph.
He recounted that he subsequently tried to ascertain from his Chief Protocol Officer how this breach could have occurred since it was the ambassador and his wife that was invited.
“He told me that the security officers at the various vantage points had no way of identifying persons. So I enquired from him what his role was then, and asked him to go downstairs… Instead he went home with the tickets and everything and when I went to look for him he was gone…the tickets specifically stated that they were non-transferable, yet persons who were not supposed to be there were there everyday.”
The President described Abraham's leave as “a cooling-off period”, stating that no firm decision has been made with regards to his future. Abraham served as Aide de Camp to former Presidents Cheddi and Janet Jagan.
The President also dispelled prior reports that Abraham was fired because he refused a directive from him to ask the First Lady to leave the stand.