It has been more than a week since four prisoners, including two murder accused, escaped from the Holding Bay at the Lusignan Prison and up to yesterday afternoon there had been no trace of them.
Contacted for an update yesterday, Director of Prisons Gladwin Samuels told Stabroek News that there has been no “positive” word on the escapees.
However, he noted that efforts are still being made to recapture them.
The escapees—Anthony Padmore, 26, of Ogle Street, Beterverwagting, East Coast Demerara; Kenraul Perez, 26, of Mabaruma, North West District; Sasnarine Bisnauth, 24, of Lot 22 Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo; and Ganesh Dhanraj, 32, of Parika Facade, East Bank Essequibo—escaped around 3.26 am on April 20 by scaling the fence.
The Guyana Prison Service, in a press release, had said that investigations revealed that the escape took place during “heavy rainfall.”
The inmates were only discovered to be missing during a roll call at 6.15 am.
Ranks on duty at the time were questioned and were said to be cooperating with the investigation. “So far, no rank has been found culpable,” the release had added.
Perez and Dhanraj were on remand for murder, while Bisnauth was on remand for robbery and armed robbery and Padmore was serving a three-year sentence for trafficking of cannabis.
Perez is accused of murdering Berbice labourer Tribhowan Singh, whose lifeless body was discovered with stab wounds on a rice farm in February, 2018. The murder is said to have stemmed from a land dispute.
Perez was only charged in relation to the crime in January of this year. Dhanraj is accused of strangling his 29-year-old wife, Dhanwantie Ram, in April, 2017. He was held days after, despite his efforts to evade the police and was charged with the murder.
In an invited comment, de facto Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan had previously told Stabroek News that lack of vigilance by the officers on duty at the time is likely the cause of the escape.
He had said that it is clear that the officers were not as alert as they should have been and were possibly asleep when the inmates escaped.
Anyone with information that may lead to the re-arrest of the four inmates can contact 911 or the nearest police station.
