PPP/C MP Charles Ramson Jnr yesterday made a fresh call for a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) to be conducted into last year’s bungled Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) surveillance operation which left three persons dead and his wife and brother-in-law traumatised.
An army intelligence officer mistakenly pursued Ramson’s wife Alana and her brother in a high speed car chase, which ended in a horrific crash on Carifesta Avenue on December 30, 2015.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has since ordered an inquest but Ramson is not satisfied and said that President David Granger’s recent decision to hold an inquiry into the deadly Drop-In Centre fire and not the Carifesta Avenue accident speaks volumes. “The only way to disprove that this was not a sinister attempt to kidnap my wife is for President Granger to do the right and honourable thing and order an inquiry,” he told Stabroek News yesterday.
Ramson noted the “diametrically opposed position and action” taken by the president with regards to the fire and the SOCU operation and the consequential deaths of three persons.
Ramson said members of the public can make up their own minds since actions speak louder than words. “On the one hand, President Granger orders a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the recent fire at the Drop-in Centre and the immediate swearing in of Retired Colonel Windee Algernon to chair the CoI, which was complemented by a statement from Minister of State Joe Harmon,” he said, referring to a comment made by Harmon in which he stressed that government places a high premium on life and any time a life is lost some inquiry has to take place.
Ramson noted that on the other hand, immediately after what President Granger claimed to be a “legitimate state operation” which involved an attempt to unlawfully detain his wife and an ensuing high speed car chase by unmarked cars and military officers in civilian clothing, he said that there would be no inquiry or probe into the matter.
Granger said in January that he saw no need for a fuller probe.
“I don’t think it requires a full probe because Sergeant Pyle was on an official mission at the time and it was quite an unfortunate accident in which three persons died so we certainly regret the loss of life but I don’t see there is need for a probe at the present time,” he said.
“Once a soldier dies, he (the Chief of Staff) will conduct an internal probe and I do believe it is adequate, I don’t know if that has been done. If it has not been done, I will certainly ask that that be done but I don’t think it needs to go wider than that,” he had said to reporters when questioned on the matter.
Army intelligence officer Robert Pyle, his wife Stacy Pyle and truck driver Linden Eastman died in the Carifesta Avenue accident.
Ramson yesterday said that the government’s “convenient concoction” of the incident being a case of “mistaken identity” supposedly to apprehend the wife or daughter of Winston Brassington has shown itself to be a total fabrication.
“The government knew that Brassington and his family were out of the country. In fact, Brassington sent an email notifying his departure, which was approved. It is the very government which grants leave to enter and exit the country, so there would be no way that the government could claim not to know that Brassington’s family was either out of the country or had not re-entered the country,” he said.
Ramson again questioned the identity of the driver of the second vehicle that was chasing after the car transporting his wife.
“I understand that the government has him under lock and key. Why can’t we find him or why can’t the media ask him questions of that night?” Ramson questioned.
Like Ramson, former Attorney General Anil Nandlall had called for a full and proper investigation where all the concerns publicly ventilated can be addressed. “Nothing short [of that] will suffice,” he had told this newspaper.
Stabroek News has been unable to ascertain if a date has been fixed for the commencement of the inquest, which will be heard by a Georgetown Magistrate.
