The main opposition PNCR yesterday called on senior public security officials to “perform or go home,” following the recent spate of high-profile executions and the murder of 16-year-old Neesa Gopaul.
Reading from a prepared statement at the party’s weekly press briefing, Shadow Home Affairs Minister Deborah Backer said the party had noted the execution-style killings of Mark Caesar, Patrick Goodluck and Godfrey Grootfaam as well as the murder of Gopaul. Expressing condolences to the families and friends of the deceased, she said “it is clear that this increasing criminality and lawlessness continues to reinforce the perception that the leadership of the Guyana Police Force—the Commissioner [Henry Greene] and the Crime Chief [Seelall Persaud]—seem incapable of arresting and bringing to justice the perpetrators of such heinous acts.”
The police have issued wanted bulletins for 12 men in connection with murders, with some of the names being those of individuals previously linked with crimes. These include city businessman Bramanand Nandalall Rambrichie, called “Brammer;” Clayton Hutson; ex-policemen Sean Belfield and Lloyd Roberts; and Mark De Abrue.
According to Backer, “they are very interesting names, many of them are names that have been linked to crime in this country for years and I don’t know why the police are now putting these pictures back out. I would think, because they have said these people are under watch, that they should know all these people’s movements. How could they now be seriously looking for some of the men that are there? What were they doing all the time?”
The PNC parliamentarian said she believed the police are at a loss about what to do and are merely reacting to appease public outcry.
“When there’s a reaction from the public they do something which they think would perhaps make us feel that they’re doing something. So the latest doing something is the putting of those faces that are all known, known in the fact that they’ve been identified for years as being people of interest or people suspected to be involved in crimes.”
According to Backer, it is an indictment of the force to issue those bulletins at this time since the men should have been under the force’s microscope for years.
“It shows that really and truly both the Commissioner of Police and the Crime Chief as we say, and we have to include the Minister of Home Affairs and the government, either don’t know how to deal with crime or they are unwilling to deal with it because to deal with it will result in people who they do not want to come under the microscope being placed there,” she stated.
She added that public security for all was a right and not a privilege to be dispensed by the state in the same way that citizens had a responsibility to pay their taxes. The people need results, Backer declared.
“We are saying you either perform or you should go home. That is what is done all over the world; you see people resigning … If there’s bad performance within their ministries, people do the decent thing and they leave office. But unfortunately in this part of the world the worse people do the more they seem to cling or want to cling to their office.”
In an October 4 report, Stabroek News said that murders were up 20% at the end of the third quarter, when compared with the same period in 2009 with a 40% increase projected by year end if the current rate continues. Referring to the article Backer said the figures were “alarming and unacceptable” to the PNCR and to the larger community. “They indicate that Guyana is heading down the road of a failed state. Children are losing parents, and parents are losing children. When will this killing season come to an end? There seem to be no respect for the sanctity of human life. Guyanese are justifiably concerned about their security. Meanwhile, the leadership of the GPF seem content to issue banalities, such as “leads being followed” and “investigations are ongoing.”
Backer said the PNCR has always condemned criminality and wrongdoing and is “pleading with the government, the Guyana Police Force, and other members of the Joint Services, to demonstrate a greater resolve and commitment to fulfil their mandate to give service and protection for all Guyanese citizens.”
Human Services Minister Priya Manickchand’s statement that a probe will be launched into her ministry’s failure to help Gopaul was also noted and Backer queried what the minister intended to do about those officers who did not follow the procedures to help the child. “Minister Priya Manickchand has said that the ministry has failed; we have failed as a nation. That we could be bringing up human beings who can do that to their child, even to a stranger, who could be involved in that kind of thing. We need as a country to become our neighbour’s keeper.”
According to Backer, Gopaul’s death is “a shame to all of us.”