UPP will host march on Thursday to bring attention to water, crime, garbage and other issues and reiterate call for inquiry

For the second time in two months, the United Progressive Party
(UPP) will host a public march that is connected to the Antigua
Airways/African migrant-smuggling saga. 

The first such event was on April 13, when the “Black March &
Candlelight Vigil” was held, in remembrance of the 17 Cameroonians
who were “lost’ in the March 28 tragedy at sea.

This time around, the UPP will be marching on Thursday, June 22 –
the date on which the 17-day picket of Government House ends – in
another call for a commission of inquiry into the now-defunct
Antigua Airways and the resultant smuggling of West Africans out of
this country.

In addition, the Party and its supporters will be marching to bring
attention to the ongoing water woes that many communities are
experiencing – in spite of the Browne Administration’s boast of an
increased number of Reverse Osmosis Plants in operation.

In some areas, residents are complaining that they have not received
the previous commodity for weeks, while in other places, residents
say that piped-water service is sporadic and very brief.

Other issues on which the Party will march in protest include the
non-collection of garbage – sometimes for weeks at a time – in some
communities; the high rate of unemployment; and the spiking cost
of living.

The UPP is also calling for safer streets in the face of rising crime;
justice for all in the courts; public consultations on important issues;
plans to curb youth violence; and, of course, for a by-election date in
St. Mary’s South.

The march will move off at 4:30 p.m. from the Multi-Purpose
Cultural and Exhibition Centre at Perry Bay. The procession will
wend its way through St. John’s and culminate on Church Street, on
the southern side of Government House, where a number of
speakers will attend the marchers on the stated issues.