-reverend calls for recovery of vessel
Rev. Bunny Samuels yesterday called for the recovery of the MV Barima, saying it was essential for families to find closure in Guyana’s worst maritime disaster.
Delivering the sermon under the theme “A Nation’s Tragedy, A Nation’s Opportunity” at the funeral service of Chief Engineer Paul Ian Seepersaud at the Wesleyan Church on Main and Asylum Streets, New Amsterdam, Samuels said the vessel should not remain submerged while the bodies of victims were still believed to be inside.
Seepersaud was among more than 70 persons who lost their lives when the MV Barima sank.
Addressing a congregation that included Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha, Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat, opposition parliamentarians Terrence Campbell, Saiku Andrews and Natasha Singh-Lewis, New Amsterdam Mayor Wainwright McIntosh, regional officials, captains and engineers of the Transport and Harbours Department, members of the legal fraternity and other mourners, Samuels stressed that every life deserved dignity.
“The vessel, MV Barima, will not remain underwater because every soul is valuable to the family,” he declared.
He said grieving families should not be expected to continue living with unresolved pain and urged that every available effort be made to recover the vessel.
“Families will not go on with unhealed wounds,” he said. “We will use all capabilities, all powers, to raise the vessel that holds many lives, so that there will be healing, restoration and deliverance.”
Samuels added that his appeal was not politically motivated but rooted in the value of human life.
“If it was my mother on that vessel, or had it been my father on that vessel, I would have used all the power I have, whatever machinery, whatever equipment. I want to see my family laid to rest. This is not political, but it’s about the value of every life,” he said.
During the service, Mustapha conveyed condolences to Seepersaud’s relatives on behalf of President Irfaan Ali and the people of Guyana.
Bharrat reflected on his childhood and school days with Seepersaud in New Amsterdam, recalling their years growing up together.
Mayor McIntosh, in extending condolences on behalf of the citizens of New Amsterdam, spoke of the fragility of life and noted that he and the deceased shared the same birth month.
Campbell offered sympathies to Seepersaud’s children, siblings and other relatives on behalf of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU).
Paying tribute, Seepersaud’s brother-in-law, Dr. Gladstone Halley, recalled that a recently acquired tattoo on the engineer’s arm enabled relatives to identify his body quickly following the disaster.
Colleagues from the Transport and Harbours Department remembered Seepersaud as a dedicated professional who was also a trusted confidant and, at times, the office “scandaler,” drawing smiles from mourners as they reflected on his personality.
Seepersaud attended Berbice High School before enrolling at the Board of Industrial Training. He later joined the Transport and Harbours Department as a Third Engineer and steadily rose through the ranks, ultimately serving as Chief Engineer at the time of his death.
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