Case against Winston Jordan thrown out, Court ends diabolical plot by AG says Forde

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, September 2022 - The case brought against former Finance Minister Winston Jordan, by Attorney General (AG) and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall as regards the sale of land to BK Marine Inc., was thrown out by the Supreme Court on the basis that Nandlall’s claim constituted an abuse of the court’s process.

The case was heard in the High Court by Justice Brassington Reynolds, who ruled the AG’s office was not the party to have filed the action. In handing down his decision last Tuesday, the Judge further ruled that the causes of action relied on by the AG in the pleadings and affidavits, were misconceived. 

The court awarded costs to former finance minister Winston Jordan as well as BK Marine Inc., in the sum of $2 million dollars each. 

Shadow Minister of Legal Affairs, Mr. Roysdale Forde SC who appeared for Jordan, told the Village Voice in an interview, that his learned colleague, Nandlall, was incompetent, in not following the law and described his actions as "thuggish".

Forde charged that the Attorney General opted to engage “in a wicked, vile and diabolical plot” to go after a Guyanese who had served honourably as a part of the A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance For Change government (APNU+AFC), and “the court has ended it.”

In February 2021, the AG filed a case against Jordan seeking to have the court overturn the sale of the land to BK Marine Inc. which he said was undervalued. 

Nandlall claimed that the land had been valued at $5 billion but was sold to the proprietor at a fraction of the cost. He was therefore seeking to have the court declare the Agreement of Sale between NICIL and BK Marine Inc repugnant, that it conflicted with public policy, it was unlawful, illegal, null and void.

Forde argued his client did nothing wrong. He  did not act in collusion with NICIL’s acting former Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Colvin Heath-London, NICIL and BK Marine Inc., nor negligently signed the Vesting Order.

In his client’s defence, Forde referenced Section 8 of the Public Corporations Act which states “the Minister, may by order, transfer to a corporation or to any other person, or place under its or his control the whole or part of (a) any undertaking or any other property of any corporation or any other person or other body corporate owned by the State or in which the controlling interest is vested in the State or any agency on behalf of the state.”

On the issue of Vesting Order, he argued the sole duty of his client as minister, who had responsibility for Public Corporations, was, upon Cabinet’s approval, to sign the Order.

The ruling, Forde reiterated, brought an end to the “diabolical plot by an incompetent and thuggish attorney general who was busy trying to threaten journalists in the not too distant past and whose name it was said was being called in the distribution of Identification cards last elections day.”

On March 2 General and Regional Elections, APNU+AFC candidates’ former AG, Mr. Basil Williams SC,  and former Minister of Social Protection, Ms. Amna Ally, had a confrontation with Nandlall on the East Coast about allegations the People’s Progressive Party/Civic was distributing identification cards to their supporters to vote more than once.

The former Finance Minister's  arrest came mere weeks after Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo publicly expressed disappointment in the Special Organised Crime Unit’s sloth in not going after political targets. This public chiding was meant to literally whip SOCU into action, and act it did said the Alliance For Change (AFC) party.

The unlawful and vulgar arrest of Winston Jordan has cemented the position that the PPP regime is now a naked dictatorship, the AFC declared.

“The nation needs to be reminded that Winston Jordan was, at all material times, a gazetted Minister, with responsibility for Finance, within President David Granger constitutionally appointed Cabinet of Ministers.

“As per the Constitution of Guyana, and established Commonwealth practice, Ministers operate under the doctrine of “collective responsibility” and are answerable to the National Assembly of the Parliament.

“At all times, Minister Jordan acted within the strict parameters of the Constitution and Financial Management and Accountability Act (FMAA). No decision was personal or without Cabinet approval.

“To charge and prosecute a former Minister for taking actions pursuant to a decision(s) of Cabinet is vulgar, abusive, unlawful and unconstitutional, and as the PPP recognised when it withdrew false charges against Dr. George Norton, an individual should not be singled out and persecuted while acting on behalf of the collective of the Constitutional body known as the Cabinet,” the AFC said.