Jermaine Figueira has filed a lawsuit against Minister of Labour Joseph Hamilton, Publisher & Editor of Kaieteur News, Editor-in-Chief of Guyana Times Inc, Attorney General, Anil Nandalall and the Department of Public Information over the alleged corruption unearthed among the co-operative societies in Linden.
The Department of Public Information had first reported Minister Hamilton saying that the Opposition Member had received some $5.7 million to launch a pig rearing project for the Wisroc community in Linden.
Among other things, the Minister had alleged that Figueria’s “co-operative society” had received the disbursement, although the Department of Co-operatives did not register it.
Figueria is seeking damages of over $50 million from the Minister of Labour over content he posted about him on January 24, 2021, and another $50 million over a defamatory statement posted by Hamilton or republished on the same day using the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic Facebook page.
Moreover, Figueria is seeking damages in excess of $50 million each from Shamaine Grainger, the Editor of Kaieteur News, its publisher Glenn Lall and the Kaieteur News publishing company, Guyana Times its Editor-in-Chief Tusika Martin, the AG, and DPI.
The persons named above are persons Figueria said in the court document that would have republished the “libel” and “defamatory” statement made by Hamilton.
If successful, he wants an Order that the Minister issues an apology and retract the statements and that the respondents themselves issue a retraction and an apology.
In addition to that, he also wants an injunction restraining Minister Hamilton and the respondents from posting, printing, publishing, sharing, recording, or otherwise recreating and disseminating the headline that was carried.
The member of parliament is asking the court for a mandatory injunction compelling the respondents to remove the link of these articles that were carried.
Meanwhile, he wants the court to award exemplary damages, aggravated damages, interest at a rate of 6% per annum from the date of filing to the date of judgment and after that at a rate of 4% per annum from the date of the decision until fully paid. He also wants any other order the Court seems just along with costs.
Figueira had said that the Minister’s utterances were aimed to “besmirch, tarnish, sully, insult and damage my good name and reputation, to gain cheap political points and gain favour with his political bosses.”
The Member of Parliament made it clear that he has never been the recipient of any disbursement from the SLED programme in 2019.
The SLED programme was set up in 2015 by the former Government, and some $760 million has been invested over the years.
