APA, APNU pillory Edghill for going to Region 1 govt outreach, amid resignation calls over MV Barima tragedy

Last Updated on Wednesday, 5 August 2026, 16:37 by Denis Chabrol

The Amerindian People’s Association (APA) and the opposition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) on Wednesday piled scorn on maritime minister Juan Edghill for being on a government outreach to Region 1 (Barima-Waini) where most of the ferry tragedy victims are from.

Mr Edghill accompanied President Irfaan Ali to the cabinet outreach amid persistent calls for that minister to step down or be fired because the ferry MV Barima sank on July 19, leaving 72 confirmed dead, 30 missing and 76 rescued.

APA executive member Jean La Rose said Mr Edghill’s participation amounted to a “mockery to people” because he was responsible and should have been held accountable.  She reiterated the need for the minister to step down and make way for a free and fair investigation. “Yet, you have this person is being paraded in our communities and God knows who will be able to make comments in those community meetings:- if it will not be engineered so that certain chosen people will have a voice because that has happened in the past,” she said. Asked whether she did not believe that Mr Edghill could have attended the outreach to answer questions directly,  Ms La Rose said he could have gone without being a minister. She said the ferry captain, first mate and the Transport and Harbours Department’s Good Superintendent should have also been present to answer questions.

She said the system of accountability by the captain and others was not broken, Guyanese would have known precisely how many persons were aboard and perished. She said the five-member Commission of Inquiry was “hurriedly put together” without Guyanese having a say to be involved and the terms if reference. Similar concerns have been raised by the political opposition.

In the view of APNU parliamentarian Juretha Fernandes, minister Edghill has failed to provide safe transportation for Guyanese. However, she said the fact that he was included in President Irfaan Ali’s ministerial outreach amounted to a “slap in the faces of the community.” “I would say that Edghill being sent to Region One today for an outreach is the Government of Guyana saying to the Indigenous People of Region One that ‘we don’t give a damn about your lives, we don’t care about how you’re feeling right now and we lack every sense of empathy that is required at this point’.”

She called on residents of Region One to unitedly tell minister Edghill that he is a “monument to impunity” and symbolises lack of accountability. “You are sending the person that had direct responsibility for providing safe transportation for the people of Region One, for sending that person to meet with the residents of Region One after it is under his watch and his negligence and incompetence that over 100 lives were lost going to Region One,” she said.

Mr Edghill has already responded to calls for his resignation or removal from office by saying that he would speak at the “appropriate” time.

APNU parliamentarian Nima Flue-Bess said ultimately Guyanese would have to decide how much longer they could tolerate an uncaring and unempathetic government. She said government opted to embark on outreaches to “fool people” with a hand-picked COI and quietly engaging families “quietly to silence them from the necessary justice.” “I am saying to the Guyanese people that all such actions seem to be uncaring and I think it is time the Guyanese people respond with uncaring attitudes,” she said.

Meanwhile, APNU parliamentary leader  Dr Terrence Campbell said since public pressure, “progress has ben made” as government has issued a request for expressions of interest for an experienced company to salvage the vessel for the Commission of Inquiry into the tragedy. “We’re not happy with it and the timelines but rest assured if we were not protesting, the PPP dictatorship would have left the MV Barima at the bottom of the Atlantic out there,” he said. Another positive outcome of the protests, he said, was opposition unity which was demonstrated in Linden on Tuesday when Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo led a ministerial outreach. “As we come together, this is the only way to hold this government accountable,” he said.