On Monday, 17 August 2026, a major legal development unfolded in Guyana’s political sphere, as local construction firm Sigma Engineering Ltd. Inc. has issued a formal legal demand to Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed, giving him an opportunity to retract allegedly false and defamatory statements about the company or face immediate High Court defamation proceedings.
The demand, outlined in a six-page legal letter delivered by Sigma’s attorney Sase Gunraj, requires Mohamed to meet several key conditions to avoid litigation. Among these are the full withdrawal of the contested claims, payment of undisclosed agreed compensation to cover the company’s damages, and coverage of all legal costs Sigma has incurred to date. While no strict public deadline was framed as an ultimatum, Gunraj made clear that non-compliance will result in immediate court action without further advance notice. Gunraj stated, “In the unlikely event of your failure to comply, legal proceedings will be initiated without further notice to you. Our client will seek the full relief available to it, together with interest and costs.”
Sigma Engineering was contracted by state-owned utility Guyana Water Inc. (GWI) to deliver potable water infrastructure projects, and most recently completed the GYD $1.3 billion New Cummings Lodge Water Treatment Plant in 2025 with an all-Guyanese core project team. The contested allegations, published on Monday morning on the Team Mohamed’s Facebook page, claimed Sigma had been awarded an extensive array of government-linked contracts, and raised questions about the company’s professional performance and business practices.
Gunraj refuted all of Mohamed’s claims as entirely baseless, noting that since Sigma’s founding in 2022, the company has only been awarded one single public sector contract: a 2026 project to rehabilitate GWI’s Shelter Belt, which is currently ongoing. The lawyer emphasized that Mohamed made the serious claims against Sigma without any factual foundation, and failed to conduct basic fact-checking before publishing the post to a public audience. “You had no proper basis for making the allegations and, notwithstanding the serious nature of the allegations, you failed to take reasonable steps to verify their truth before publishing them,” Gunraj wrote in the letter.
Beyond retraction and compensation, Sigma is demanding Mohamed remove all defamatory content from his social media platforms under his control, issue a full, unreserved written apology and retraction in terms approved by the company’s legal team, and republish the apology with the same level of visibility that the original defamatory post received. The company also requires a formal written undertaking that Mohamed will not repeat or republish the claims against Sigma, and that he will preserve all relevant documents, digital records, communications, and drafts related to the original post as potential evidence for future litigation.
If the case proceeds to court, Sigma will request a range of legal remedies, including compensatory, aggravated, and exemplary damages for defamation, a court injunction to block any further publication of the contested claims, coverage of all litigation costs and accrued interest, and any additional relief the High Court deems appropriate.
Gunraj emphasized that the false allegations have already caused significant harm to Sigma’s business reputation, which underpins its commercial operations and goodwill. The claims, Gunraj argued, have painted the firm as dishonest, unprofessional, inefficient, and negligent to the public, which threatens the company’s ability to win new work and recruit qualified staff, making legal redress necessary to protect Sigma’s standing.