Army Chief of Staff Commodore Gary Best says an investigation has started into allegations made against three Guyana Defence Force personnel by a man who ended up being shot and robbed of $1.2 million.
Best told Stabroek News that he has been made aware of the matter and a thorough investigation will be carried out. He said the army will issue a press release on the matter by tomorrow.
Leon Joe of Haslington, East Coast Demerara said that two GDF personnel, whom he named, also relieved him of a gold band. As a result of the incident, Joe is nursing a gunshot wound to his right thigh. Yesterday checks on Joe revealed that he was still in a stable condition and according to him he was “recovering”.
Asked whether there was more he wanted to add to his story, he replied, “No! What I said is exactly what happened.”
Stabroek News understands that one of the officers named by Joe heads an important unit of the force.
Joe told Stabroek News that the three members of the GDF who accosted him were drunk. The man said that they included a Staff Sergeant, a Major and a Corporal and they were not in uniform. He claimed that he responded to a call from one of them to go to Cool Square hangout bar at Back Road,West Ruimveldt. He said he was offered a drink, but was advised that the drink may have been polluted and he tried to leave.
However he was cornered by another rank, who pushed him in the direction of the Back Road. He resisted and tried to run away. According to him, the man pulled out a gun and shouted that he was going to shoot him and he stopped. He said he got into an unoccupied car and two of the officers dragged him out, placed him in their vehicle, an Ipsum, and drove off.
He was told by one of the men that he would be relieved of his personal effects, which included the gold band and $1.2 million that he said he had in an envelope.
He said the men told him that they were taking him to the GDF compound but as they passed through Cemetery Road, he thought that they were taking him to the police and when they passed the Police Outpost at the junction, he asked where they were taking him. He said that the Corporal responded, “leh we take he to D’urban Backlands and leh we do he deh. Is lang I wan do he.”
Upon hearing this, the maintenance engineer said, he opened the car door and at this point he heard the gunshot and he jumped out of the moving vehicle. He said that he crossed a trench and managed to stop a taxi, and went to his mother’s home. The vehicle had not stopped when he jumped out, he said. He had been shot in his right thigh. He was taken to the city hospital shortly after midnight and underwent surgery to remove the bullet. He was unconscious for most of Friday, he said.
Joe admitted to being friendly with a daughter of one of the men and claimed that the man had threatened to shoot him.
Joe had said he was employed with the Guyana Chronicle, but that newspaper said he did electrical work there on a contractual basis.
