– in Madewini shootout
A soldier has confessed to being an accomplice to gunmen who launched an early morning attack on a GT&T cell site at Hauraruni, Linden/Soesdyke Highway on Sunday, before engaging in a shootout with police.
According to police, a Guyana Defence Force corporal was in custody assisting with the investigation of the crimes of the heavily armed gunmen, who held up three security guards at the cell site and stole 23 five-gallon containers of diesel. The gunmen abandoned the car they were travelling in along with the stolen fuel at Madewini when they panicked on seeing a police vehicle and opened fire on the lawmen.
Stabroek News understands that blood was discovered in the abandoned vehicle, indicating that at least one of the gunmen was injured during the shootout. The army corporal was arrested, police said last evening in a press release, after he turned up at the Madewini Police Outpost and reported the car used in the incident as having been stolen. “However, he was arrested and under questioning confessed to having been the driver of the motor car,” the release said.
The police said it was reported that around 03:10 hrs three men armed with firearms held up and robbed two males and a female security guard at the GT&T location at Hauraruni. The men held up the security guards and after tying them up took away 23 five-gallon containers of diesel, $15,000 and a cell phone and escaped in the same vehicle that was subsequently detained by the police following the incident at Madewini.
The area where the incident occurred is isolated with the nearest signs of life about a mile away. This attack has raised security concerns, especially for guards working in these isolated areas.
Sources close to the investigation said that three armed bandits confronted the guards at the cell site, tied them up and covered them with a sheet, in an apparent bid to conceal their identities and actions. From all appearances, the gunmen went to the location to steal fuel; a similar incident had earlier occurred at one of GT&T’s Timehri locations. The company’s public relations officer Allison Parker yesterday confirmed to Stabroek News that fuel had been stolen from the Timehri location earlier in the year and she was adamant that in Sunday’s attack the fuel was the perpetrators’ objective.
Stabroek News was told yesterday that before loading the 23 containers into the trunk of their car, the men assaulted the female guard. There are reports that the other guard sustained injuries as well. The men then fled the area but encountered the police shortly after.
In a press release on Sunday, police said that around 04:40 hrs, ranks of a mobile patrol at Madewini, observed what at the time, was suspected to be fuel leaking from the trunk of motor car PFF 1757. The car, police reported, was travelling in front of the patrol and was carrying three men. The police continued following the vehicle, which subsequently suddenly stopped. One of the men then exited and opened fire with a handgun on the police. Police immediately took cover and returned fire but the men managed to escape.
A search was subsequently conducted on the abandoned car and 23 plastic containers containing dieseline, a 12-gauge shotgun with four cartridges, a pair of gloves and a camouflage hat and poncho were found.
Enhanced security
needed
The executive chairman of COPS (Guyana) Ltd Gregory Gaskin told Stabroek News yesterday that in the light of this incident the company is engaged in discussions with GT&T to beef-up security particularly in isolated locations. He said that the nearest person is located about a mile from the cell site and as such the guards were isolated.
Gaskin noted that the incident occurred at a time (the Christmas season) when the frequency of robberies tends to increase and this is a cause of concern for him. He told this newspaper that the company interchanges the guards along the highway at the different sites so that they do not get comfortable and also employs people from the surrounding areas. From all indications, the bandits who carried out the Sunday morning attack are not from that area or any community close by.
Gaskin said too that the guards were traumatised. Speaking on the fact that a woman had been posted at the location, he said while this is an area of great concern men are not applying at his company. “You are not getting men to come out to work. It is the womenfolk who have to come and take the men’s work,” he said before adding that 70% to 80% of the security guards are women.
Yesterday security guards attached to the firm expressed fears for their safety. This newspaper was told that in the light of the incident, recommendations will be made to senior officials in the company to see how best the safety of workers could be improved. One guard whom Stabroek News spoke with said based on the accounts she received, she was immediately overcome with fear. The woman said that the safety of her co-workers who are attached to out-of-town locations needs to be urgently addressed.
She added too that posting a female at these locations is another issue that needs to be addressed immediately as this should not be.
