King’s sitting request, not terror attack rumour, called for carnival route change |27 April 2015

The route of the fifth Carnaval International de Victoria was altered not because of rumours of a terror attack but because the King of Ashanti, His Royal Highness King Otumfuo Osei Tutu II made a late request to sit under his own marquee umbrellas.

“The main VIP stand was moved from the Stad Popiler car park as the King of Ashanti, His Royal Highness King Otumfuo Osei Tutu II requested on Saturday morning to sit under his own marquee umbrellas. We had to accommodate his demand and custom. President James Michel and other visiting dignitaries and members of the cabinet of ministers used the International Conference Centre as grandstand to watch the carnival parade as that was opposite to where the king and his large entourage of 200 people were seated under his umbrellas. This also called for the carnival parade route to be altered and come down the New Port Avenue. This delayed the arrival of the procession in Victoria proper,” said the Minister for Tourism and Culture Alain St Ange.

The minister also labelled as rumours comments regarding an attempt to destabilise the government. News of such an incident had reached the population before the start of the carnival.

“We learned through the social media that there was an attempt to destabilise the government. Every day in Seychelles, there is a number of rumours that go around and government does not make any official reaction for the simple reason that it will have to come out with many press releases daily to counter all the rumours. Although the Seychelles government did not see it as a major threat, it still deployed a number of security officials to safeguard the population and the invited guests. Nothing happened, the carnival ended well despite starting with a 45-minute delay,” said Minister St Ange.

Minister St Ange added that the Ministry of Internal Affairs will surely come out with a more detailed explanation once it has gathered all information about who posted the information and why.

Meanwhile, eTurboNews wrote that according to a reliable source, the Seychelles government was alerted by a foreign embassy minutes before the beginning of the parade about an attempt to destabilise the government.

It added that unconfirmed rumours mentioned a planned assassination attempt, possibly by a foreign terror group.