A canteen operator who has worked at the Woolford Avenue complex of the Central Islamic Organization of Guyana (CIOG) for five years says she suspects she is being victimized after receiving an abrupt eviction notice just days after posting a humorous TikTok video referencing the rising cost of living under President Irfaan Ali.
Farha Najab told Kaieteur News that no explanation was provided by CIOG for the notice, which requires her to vacate the premises on or before April 30, 2026.
According to Najab, after she posted the video on Monday afternoon, her husband received a call on Tuesday from an official of the Muslim Youth Organisation located next door to CIOG who described the video as disrespectful and insinuated it should be taken down. Her husband explained it was meant purely for humor and was not a personal attack on anyone.
The following morning, while operating the canteen, Najab said she was summoned by CIOG’s accounts department. Believing the meeting was about renewing her long-overdue contract, she was instead handed a letter signed by the President of CIOG informing her that since her contract had expired, she was required to vacate.
Najab explained that her contract had lapsed in December 2025, and she had been making repeated visits to CIOG’s office to have it renewed, only to be told that the departure of the General Manager had stalled the process. She said that after the canteen remained closed during Ramadan and the Easter school break, she had just restocked having invested a significant sum when school resumed and she reached out again about the contract.
After contacting the CIOG President directly by email, she received a brief response stating that the organisation was not looking to renew contracts at this time. Her appeal for additional time, citing that she is a mother of five and that the canteen is her family’s primary source of income, went unaddressed.
“We had good communication for the past five and a half years, this is so sudden, this is so abrupt. I have never felt victimized by CIOG,” Najab said, noting she has been connected to the organisation for approximately 11 years, having previously worked there as a teacher and office staff. She has since deleted the TikTok video.
“All that I wanted from them is some amount of leniency in the timeframe given and some amount of explanation. Let me know if I have done something that has caused this action,” she said.
Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed visited the canteen and described the situation as an injustice. His party, We Invest in Nationhood (WIN), issued a statement expressing grave concern over what it called a pattern of targeting citizens for political dissent, and called on the government and affiliated institutions to immediately cease such actions and allow all Guyanese to speak freely without fear of losing their livelihoods.
