WHITHER AMNA’S OLIVE BRANCH!

LINDEN’S MAYOR WANEKA ARRINDELL WAS IN MO MOOD TO EXTEND THE
OLIVE BRANCH to her Town Clerk, Orleena Obermuller, even after Ms. Amna Ally, General
Secretary (GS) of the Peoples National Congress (PNC) attempted to broker peace between the
two ‘women-at-war’ in the bauxite mining town of Linden.
Ally travelled to the Upper Demerara/Berbice (Region Ten) municipality recently,
www.aroundtheregions.com learnt, to end the ongoing squabble between Arrindell and
Obermuller, both strong PNC supporters, which have boiled over publicly, poisoning the
atmosphere around the municipality.
But as soon as Ally left the meeting, Arrindell took to the media rehashing months-long
allegations of alleged pilfering of funds at the Mayor and Town Council (M&TC) in another
desperate attempt to ensnare Obermuller in the-so-far fictitious crime.
“The Mayor and the Deputy were deliberately bent on creating continued confusion as after the
meeting with GS Ally, it was expected that both sides would have put their differences aside and
seek at working together. But I guess the Mayor had other plans,” a source confided.
Obermuller, Arrindell and her Deputy Wainewright Bethune are at odds over the precipitous
decline in toll collection in the mining town which slipped from $60M in 2017 to near $40M in
2020.
Arrindell and Bethume are claiming pilfering for the 33 per cent decline, but Obermuller blames
the slide on administrative vision-defect by the Mayor and her office.
“I am tired of these people and their lies, where they keep trying to stain my name,” Obermuller
told www.aroundtheregions.com in a recent interview.

The public spat between the two leading ladies in Linden, the impregnable PNC political
stronghold, has attracted Congress Place forcing Ally to play intermediary. According to
information from the meeting, Arrindell restated that she and some Councillors lost confidence
in Obermuller as the Town Clerk, claiming since the APNU+AFC lost the March 2015 polls, she
has switched loyalties to the ruling Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) coalition.
Obermuller debunked all Arrindell’s claims telling Ally that the Mayor, and her Deputy have
been on a mud-slinging campaign to oust her as Town Clerk.
Obermuller affirmed strongly that Arrindell and Bethume are on an ongoing crusade against her
because she has been refusing to bend to their unconscionable and unethical demands. In
addition, Obermuller reportedly told the meeting with GS Ally that Arrindell’s and Bethume’s
outrage at her stems from her continuous refusal to be sucked into their political intrigues.
The Town Clerk revealed that in her vindictive spite to inflict maximum punishment on her,
Mayor Arrindell is stomping many PNC supporters in the process. Late payments of monthly
salaries to workers tactic by Arrindell to cast blame on Obermuller and justify her claims of
Obermuller’s incompetence.
At the time of writing, M&TC workers have not been paid their salaries for the month of May.
Obermuller maintained in the meeting that she will not be intimidated by either Mayor Arrindell
or her Deputy, Bethume.
Ally pushed both sides to work closely, counselling that it is not a good sign when the PPP has to
be investigating APNU members because of allegations by a fellow comrade.
But Ally’s olive branch didn’t get time to wither when Arrindell tossed the bouquet and
grabbed a brickbat.