By Desilon Daniels
A Port Kaituma fisherman who was recently attacked by pirates believes that a faster police response may have led to their capture.
Samuel Benjamin Jnr, 24, of 4 Miles, Port Kaituma and his teenaged brother were attacked by three armed men while fishing at the mouth of the Waini River in the North West District.
On Thursday, Benjamin had been fishing with his brother around 7am when they saw a boat approaching from the distance.
“We saw the boat approaching but we didn’t think anything of it ’cause a lot of people come to us while we’re out there and buy fish from us. Is a regular thing, so we didn’t even consider that these men were bandits,” Benjamin told Stabroek News.
“These people just arrive just so to we; they had two small guns and a big gun. They told us drive the boat and tell us tek off the motor and give them. They then told us to lie down in the boat and tied us up. After they did that they start taking the rest of stuff off the boat,” Benjamin said before adding, “They just left us there floating and gone.”
Benjamin’s father, Benjamin Snr, recounted the events from his perspective on the beach. According to the elder Benjamin, who has been a fisherman his entire life and would normally go out to the Waini River with his sons to fish, they were robbed by two Spanish-speaking men along with an English-speaking man.
On the day of the attack, his sons were running the seine offshore while Benjamin Snr stayed behind on the beach. “I saw when the boat came, come to the mouth, circle by where the camp deh before heading back up towards my sons,” the father said.
He added that the men approached the family boat in their own; the two boats began to move further away from the beach. “I’m sitting and wondering why my sons going out into the deep, into the ocean,” Benjamin Snr related.
They moved to such a distance that he could not see what was happening; the second boat eventually motored off and Benjamin Snr subsequently saw that the engine of his boat was missing. He could not see his sons, he said.
“Immediately when I see that the boat drive away I realise that is bandits and is rip off we get rip off,” he added. The concerned father ran back to the camp, grabbed his cellphone and got on to the Mabaruma Police Station, where officers promised that they would turn up promptly.
He also tried to get on to the coast guard but that attempt failed. “The police keep claiming that they coming, they coming, but they never come until four hours later. By that time, my two sons managed to loose themselves and get the boat back to shore. All this time we’re waiting for the police, waiting for the coast guard, but nobody come,” Benjamin Snr lamented. He continued, “Even the ferry that leaves for 7 from Kumaka passed us long and disappeared before the police could arrive; and the ferry is not a fast boat.”
The Benjamin family believes that if the police had responded earlier to their calls, the bandits would have been captured.
Stabroek News was told that when the police finally arrived, they came with a borrowed boat and advised the victims to “tell the President” that the police and coast guards in the region were in dire need of boats.
“This is a port of entry from Venezuela and they should have better security here. The security real slack at this time here,” Benjamin Snr said. “They left us there for four hours; if we been dead nobody woulda care about we,” Benjamin Jnr added.
The younger Benjamin further stated that though a statement was taken from his brother Carlos, none was taken from him.
He also pointed out that there are numerous robberies in Guyana, especially on sea, and many persons do not receive justice. “You not getting anything from the law; you got the law and you’re not getting any justice. It ain’t mek no sense,” he said.
The perpetrators reportedly escaped with a 15 horsepower outboard engine, valued at $540,000 along with a quantity of items including fuel. According to the Benjamins, the engine was “practically brand new.”
Within this year, there have been at least seven reported pirate attacks and eight men are still missing from two attacks which occurred in July.
Following the attacks, fishermen, including Parmeshwar Jainarine, the acting chairman of the Upper Corentyne Fishermen’s Coop, had bemoaned the fact that little is being done to address piracy, while opposition leader David Granger had called for the government to show commitment in the fight against pirates.
