President Bharrat Jagdeo wants the main opposition PNCR to publicly acknowledge that Buxton is a safe haven for criminals before he engages in any discussion with it on crime and security but opposition leader Robert Corbin says it’s a pity the President is indulging in such behaviour at a time like this.
As Lusignan residents grieved yesterday as they cremated or buried the remaining 10 victims of the Saturday morning massacre, Jagdeo was tackled by a few residents who insisted on answers on questions pertaining to their security.
One resident asked the President if he would engage the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) in discussions on the issue of crime and security.
In response to this question Jagdeo said that this could not happen unless the party’s leaders publicly acknowledge that the East Coast Demerara village of Buxton is a safe haven for criminals.
“Their ambivalence on this point puts to doubt the sincerity of their expressed condolences and of their support for the security forces. The best way to honour those who were so brutally massacred is to hunt down the responsible killers,” the Government Information Agency (GINA) quoted Jagdeo as saying yesterday.
The agency also reported that Jagdeo also said he has given instructions to the security forces to find the killers adding that, “we would not rest until we achieve this objective.”
Contacted for comment on the president’s remarks, Corbin told Stabroek News he had spoken at the funerals as requested by relatives of the victims during which the president “chose to be absent.”
The opposition leader said he would repeat his remark, “Without vision and visionary leadership, a nation perishes,”
“It is a pity that at a time when Guyana requires responsible and visionary leadership, President Jagdeo has chosen to indulge in infantile behaviour,” Corbin asserted.
Additionally Corbin said his party would not stand idly by and see innocent young men be sacrificed for political expediency, “so that President Jagdeo and the security forces can create delusion to appease the suffering relatives that they have begun to do something to solve the crime and security situation in Guyana.”
