Former Attorney General Anil Nandlall says based on information received from his clients who were interviewed at SOCU Headquarters in the Pradoville 2 probe, UK adviser Dr Sam Sittlington may have exceeded his remit. Nandlall was responding to a statement issued by the UK High Commission this morning on Sittlington’s role.
An abridged version of Nandlall’s statement follows:
“I thank the British High Commission, His Excellency, Greg Quinn, for a statement issued which purports to clarify the role of Dr. Sam Sittlington at the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU). It confirms that Dr. Sittlington, functions at SOCU in an advisory and training capacity and not in an operational role.
“However, based upon information I have received from clients who have been the subject of SOCU’s investigations and from what I personally observed on Tuesday, 9th of March 2017, it is difficult not to conclude that Dr. Sittlington may have exceeded his official remit and trespassed into operational matters at SOCU. Moreover, it is awfully difficult to reconcile the admitted remit of Dr. Sittlington at SOCU, that is, as an advisor and a trainer, with “him explaining [to the press] the legal basis and rights on which SOCU took the actions they did.” In my humble view, this latter function seems better suited for the Public Relations Department of the Guyana Police Force, of which SOCU is a part. The content of what he disclosed to the press, swayed him in yet another direction: the political realm. These unfortunate utterances only exacerbated an already ignoble situation…
“I have no doubt, that the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) will have much more to say on this matter, including, the propriety of Ministers of the Government and investigators from SOCU, their consultant et al, celebrating, hours after several of its leaders and Members of Parliament were arrested and detained – an exercise about which one of those very Ministers forewarned will take place, a week prior.”
