GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – President Irfaan Ali Wednesday urged Guyanese nationals here and abroad to refrain from using social media for self-generated analysis of the fire that engulfed the dormitory of the Mahdia Secondary School on Monday, killing 19 students and injuring several others.
“I am urging all Guyanese to desist from self-analysis, from reviewing timelines in the stories of all these girls, and from analyzing the life story of all these girls at this time.
“There is a time and place for everything. Let us focus on using social media for motivational quotes, prayers, inspirational songs, uplifting messages and not an opportunity to theorize and come up with our theories on these beautiful children’s lives,” Ali said in a broadcast on his Facebook page, adding “this is a time for national responsibility, collective responsibility in seeking your help in responsibly issuing social media at this time.
“Yes, we are a very opinionated society. We all have opinions on what is right and wrong and what should and should not be done, but as I said before, the government, as far as possible, will fulfill the wishes and desires of the children and their families.
“It is the least we can do, and everything we are doing, we are doing it in consultation with the families,” he added.
Police say they will send a file to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) on Wednesday after indicating that a female student may have played a role in setting fire to the building that housed female students from Mahdia, Campbelltown, Micobie, El Paso, and several other villages in the North Pakaraimas in Region 8
In a statement, the police said the investigations “reveal that a female student is suspected of having set the devastating fire because her cellular phone was taken away by the Dorm’s mother and a teacher.”
It said that at the time of the fire, there were 57 female students in the one-flat concrete building measuring about 100 feet by 40 feet, with several windows, all grilled, and five doors. One boy was among the 19 children killed.
On Tuesday, a candlelight vigil was held at the Umana Yana in the capital and attended by survivors who were recently released from the hospital and family members.
In his broadcast, President Ali urged citizens to “put your opinions in a backseat and let’s put these children in the front seat as a priority.
“I ask all of us to do the same. Let us put our opinions and our desires for once in the back seat and put these families and these children in the front seat. Let them be the priority of our nation at this time,” Ali said, urging a collective show of love for those affected by the tragedy.
“Let us understand that these children and families will go back to small villages in the hinterland where there are no neighbors close by, where there is no telephone service for them to call each other and support each other, where there is no deep population to rest their shoulders on,” he said, adding that “many of them have lost major parts of their families.
Ali said he is committed to the children and their families, “and whatever it takes for those who require medical attention now, we will do it.
“I have committed to the families that we are going to be by their sides as a government and as a people as long as it takes,” Ali said in his broadcast.
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