Concerns were yesterday expressed by PNCR attorney Basil Williams about the sudden appearance of a copy of the extension of the life of the Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry (CoI) in the Official Gazette, just after he had raised the issue.
Addressing members of the Commission yesterday morning, Williams inquired about the extension of the life of the inquiry as the originally designated four-month timeframe had elapsed. This resulted in an almost hour-long delay in the start of the day’s proceedings as counsel for the commission and members of the secretariat scampered to find the publication. Based on the copy that this newspaper saw, the publication was made in the Official Gazette on June 24 for the commission to be extended until September 30. It raises the possibility that testimony before the CoI prior to June 23 could be considered not to have been covered by the extension.
When the session began, Williams said that he had earlier raised the issue of the expiration of the four-month timeframe, which the