GUYANA | Opposition MP Sherod Duncan arrested over alleged "Jaggabat" Statement

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, January 13, 2022 - Opposition parliamentarian, Sherod Duncan was arrested on Thursday in relation to a Cybercrime offence he alleged committed on an official of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).

Duncan was released from custody this afternoon after being granted $100,000 bail. He used the opportunity to deny the charges and the allegations leveled against him. He is to appear in court on Monday to answer Cybercrime charges.

The police say Duncan an outspoken Opposition Member of Parliament and host of the popular “In The Ring” talk show, was arrested after GECOM IT Manager Aneal Giddings alleged that on January 11 at about 8 PM, Duncan  made offensive remarks about him on his social media programme, “In The Ring”.

According to the Police, Giddings complained to the Cyber Crime Unit that during Duncan’s talk show, he was allegedly called by name and referred to as a “jaggabat” and “trench crappo”. These names he says are disrespectful and caused him significant emotional distress and humiliation.

Duncan was invited to the CID headquarters where he was immediately arrested and  kept in custody for more than six hours and not allowed any visits from his Attorneys including a number of senior members of the APNU+AFC Opposition who are attorneys.

Media reports quote opposition MPs and Attorneys Amanza Walton-Desir and Khemraj Ramjattan as saying that the Guyana Police Force was abusing the cybercrime laws.

Police said they have since downloaded the video from the Facebook page under the name ‘Sherod Avery Duncan’.

Sherod Duncan has been a proverbial thorn in the side of the government, as his hard hitting social media programme is widely viewed and listened to and highlights the inequities of the PPP administration.

In June last year Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira condemned what she says is a “malicious and deluded” Facebook post made by Opposition Member of Parliament, Annette Ferguson accusing the Government of “setting up of Death Squad and Black Clothes groups.”

In November The Guyana Police Force issued a wanted bulletin for US-based Guyanese political activist Rickford Burke, on allegations of inciting a breach of the peace; inciting public terror and Seditious Libel.

Burke who hosts an online social media talk show has been a political thorn in the side of the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) administration labelling the Ali/Jagdeo regime racist,which has not gone down well with the administration.

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