Politician Mark Benschop yesterday refused to give police a statement on a reported $3 million contract on his life after saying that one of the ranks who turned up to interview him was among those alerted to the plot.
“I told both ranks that I see it as a conflict of interest… I couldn’t continue the meeting,” Benschop told Stabroek News yesterday, while noting that the rank attempted to deny knowledge of what he was saying but he had an audio recording that proved otherwise.
Benschop had told Stabroek News on Friday that Regan Rodrigues, called ‘Grey Boy,’ one of the suspects in the murder of political activist Courtney Crum-Ewing, had allegedly admitted that he was offered $3 million to kill him (Benschop). Benschop said too that “another job” was lined up after the hit on him and he believes that Crum-Ewing was that target.
Following a confrontation between the two suspects, police had expressed an interest in speaking to Benschop and for two days they had promised to visit his East Street office to do so but never did.
Benschop yesterday said that two investigators turned up sometime during the late morning hours at his office. “In the midst, I realised that it was a waste of time and that they weren’t conducting a proper investigation. There was a conflict of interest. Why should I feel comfortable being interviewed by them?” he said.
According to Benschop, he realised one of the officers before him was told of the plot while at the Ruimveldt Police Station. It was clarified yesterday that Rodrigues, subsequent to speaking with Benschop, had gone to the Ruimveldt Police Station, where he alerted ranks to the execution plot. Sometime later, he made a report to the person who is now leading the Crum-Ewing investigation at CID Headquarters, Eve Leary.
Armed with this knowledge, Benschop said he told both ranks that he saw a conflict of interest and could not speak to them further on the matter, let alone provide them with a statement.
He said the rank in question denied that he got any such information and pleaded for the interview to continue. “The officer denied that Grey Boy tell him anything and give him licence plate number and all of that,” Benschop related. “I told them that I cannot continue with the meeting. It was a conflict of interest,” he said before reiterating that there is need for an independent investigation.
He said he told the two ranks point blank that Rodrigues was an informant for the police.
“They just want to know what Grey Boy told me and if he said anything to implicate them,” he opined.
Rodrigues, according to Benschop, reported the intended plot prior to and after the March 10, execution of Crum-Ewing.
Crum-Ewing was shot dead at Diamond, East Bank Demerara, where he was urging persons to head to the polls and vote the PPP/C out of office. Benschop has since said that at the appropriate time he will release more information on his conversation with Rodrigues to the public.
