Odinga Green, who was freed of a murder charge in 2012, now fears for his life following the publication of a news article that paints a picture of him as a dangerous criminal on the loose, he said.
The 38-year-old man told Stabroek News yesterday that all of his hard work to walk the straight and narrow path was destroyed in a matter of hours following an article published in last Sunday’s edition of the Kaieteur News. He has since made a report to the police.
In summary, the article which said he “just might be a borderline serial killer” claimed that Green murdered Sandra Harvey in 1999 and Nazaline Mohamed in 2007. Green was freed of both charges – one on appeal and the other for want of evidence. According to the article, he is a “quiet and pleasant chap… with a liking for shoelaces and women’s jewellery.” The items were apparently trademarks in killings.
But an emotional Green told Stabroek News yesterday that the article has destroyed his life. He immediately lost his job and his girlfriend of more than a year. Now, he says, women in the area where he lives are throwing remarks at him, insinuating that he was going to rob them of their jewellery before tying them up with shoelaces and killing them.
As if this were not enough, his mother, who resides abroad, collapsed yesterday morning at the hospital where she works after learning about what had been published.
“If you read the article, they are destroying my life a second time,” Green said while stressing that he is not only a victim of character assassination but has also become trapped in a culture where society looks down on you and gives no second chances.
He recalled that on Sunday he was awakened by a telephone call. It was his sister who informed him of the article and pleaded with him to stay indoors. Wanting to see the content of the article, Green said, he went a short distance from his home and bought a copy of the newspaper. “When I read it, I start to cry. How the article write is what upset me …plus they put my picture,” he said between sobs.
Subsequently, the relatives of his girlfriend arrived and removed her from his home. A distraught Green said that she is also feeling the effects of the situation as her relatives are accusing her of bringing shame to the family. The woman is a hairdresser who owns her own business and since the publication a number of her customers have called her, urging her to be careful.
He said that in the last year and four months, the woman had stood by him and had even started taking him to church. He recalled that after his release from prison, a prominent businessman gave him a job to sweep in front of his store every morning. He said he would commence his duties at 5.30 am and his girlfriend being scared for him would often accompany him and even help with the sweeping so that he could finish faster and return home.
Green explained that he would also collect products from a man and sell them at locations such as the seawall. He told Stabroek News that when he turned up on Sunday the man told him “don’t come. It ain’t mek sense” and that he had other persons who could take on the task he was doing. Though the man did not make direct reference to what had been published, Green expressed certainty that the man had read the article.
He said some time back he had ended up in a “police story” which landed him before the court. Within a month, he said, that charge was dismissed by the magistrate. Green stressed that besides this incident he has had no run-ins with the law and has been living an honest life. He said he is afraid that one day he could be walking on the road and the next he could be killed.
“What they do can cause me to be shot dead… People could start pointing fingers and I could be killed. People could dig up some unsolved murder and seh is me do it,” the emotional Green told Stabroek News.
Taking note of the timing of the article, Green told this newspaper he was fearful that murders will be pinned on him and that he would become a police target. “I don’t give the police no problem,” he stressed.
He said he had called the Kaieteur News but was told that there was nothing that could be done since the article had already been published. The person on the other end of the line said too that the author of the story was out of office and if he was not pleased with the article he could make contact with the editor Adam Harris.
‘I am innocent’
Asked about the two murders with which he was charged, Green strongly denied that he killed the women. “I never did anything to these women,” he stressed.
Speaking specifically about Mohamed, he said that the young woman had been involved in an issue but at the time he was unaware of it. He said that they left for Linden in the company of an acquaintance and he stressed that the last time he saw the woman alive she was in the company of his acquaintance. He said he blamed himself for how things ended with this matter because instead of facing the accusation head on he panicked and fled to Suriname. He was later caught and deported to Guyana. Green told this newspaper that he did explained the entire story to a senior policeman in Berbice who said it was too late and that a judge and jury were the ones who had to decide his fate.
On February 2, 2007 Mohamed had left her Lot 1 East Ruimveldt home with her bag, jewellery and passport in the company of a man and another woman. She told relatives that they were headed to Cayenne, French Guiana. Ten days later, on February 12, her decomposing body was found in a coal pit at Wisroc, Linden. It took a few more days for her remains to be positively identified by relatives.
In the case of Harvey, she had left her Berbice home in December 1999 and ended up travelling to Linden in the company of a man to collect her husband who worked at Omai. The 39-year-old mother of two was later found in a valley at Wisroc, Linden with her hands tied behind her back, mouth gagged and her body propped up against a tree stump. Green was later arrested and charged. In 2004, he was convicted and sentenced to death but he later successfully appealed the verdict and won the right to a second trial. At the end of the second trial in 2005 he was freed based on the testimony from witnesses being riddled with inconsistencies.
