The security of City Hall is a function of the City Constabulary and no formal request has been made by that entity to the police for any assistance in investigating a reported break-in to the Town Clerk’s Office, acting Police Commissioner Seelall Persaud has said.
The police had been called to probe the alleged break in to the Office of the Town Clerk, after it had been boarded up subsequent to a motion to send acting Town Clerk Carol Sooba and City Treasurer Ron McCalmon on administrative leave. However, the ranks were allegedly instructed by a superior to abort their investigation, Mayor Hamilton Green had said.
In letters responding to allegations made by Green that police failed to act on the report of the alleged break-in at the Town Clerk’s Office, Persaud stated that no formal request was made to the police for any assistance by the City Constabulary as is the norm. He further said that security of City hall is a function of the City Constabulary.
The two letters from the commissioner to the mayor, dated September 5 and September 10, 2014, respectively, were released by the police force on Thursday.
In his letters, Persaud explained that he was not aware of what transpired at the Brickdam Police Station when the report was made and that the superior officer who had called the ranks back may have done so, in consideration of the assumption that the City Constabulary was adequately treating with its responsibilities at City Hall.
Green told Stabroek News that the commissioner has taken a principled position and thus he, Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase-Green and some councillors have spoken to Chief of the City Constabulary Andrew Foo, regarding taking relevant action on the matter. This conversation, Green said, had been followed with a letter.
“I expect him [Foo] to act without fear or favour and [with] professional competence in this and other matters,” Green said. He added, “The commissioner said that he must act and I expect him to act with alacrity.”
When contacted about the action he will be pursuing in the matters spoken of by the mayor, Foo said: “The Town Clerk will deal with that. Anything you want to know, call the town clerk.”
