Senior Superintendent Wendell Blanhum, who had been serving as Commander of Region One, has been returned to the post of Crime Chief as more changes in the hierarchy of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) have been effected under the PPP/C government.
Senior Superintendent Jairam Ramlakhan, who had been the GPF’s Police Public Relations Officer, has been named as Blanhum’s replacement as Commander of Region One.
In addition to this, Commander of Region 4 (C) Assistant Commissioner Royston Andries-Junor will now head the force Public Relations Unit, while Senior Superintendent Khali Pareshram, who served as the second-in-command to Andries-Junor, will now lead that division.
Also among the senior officers being reassigned is Assistant Commissioner Simon McBean, who has been serving as the Commander of Region Three. He will now lead Region Four (A) while Senior Superintendent Errol Watts, who had previously headed Region Three, will return to the post.
Ramlakhan, while confirming the new appointments, said that the officers transferred are required to take up their new duties immediately.
Ramlakhan has served as the spokesman for the force over the past five years.
In 2019, Blanhum was appointed as Commander for Region One when the force restructured its boundary marks for divisions.
In 2017, he was reassigned from being Crime Chief to being second-in-charge of the Guyana Police Force’s ‘A’ Division and later served in the force Projects Unit before taking up command of Region 1.
Blanhum’s reassignment was somewhat controversial since it closely followed the completion of a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into an alleged assassination plot against then president David Granger. The CoI had specifically recommended that the officers that played a key role in the investigation of the alleged plot, including Blanhum, be reassigned, possibly to positions outside of the police force based on their conduct. At the time, the subject minister Khemraj Ramjattan had said Blanhum’s removal from the post of Crime Chief was not a demotion and that he was a “serious pillar” in the GPF and had done a “fantastic job” in the post.
Meanwhile, McBean, has been serving as commander since his reinstatement in 2019, 10 years after being wrongfully dismissed from the Guyana Police Force.
McBean, in confirming his transfer, told Stabroek News last night that while it will be a new challenge for him, he is committed to execute his duties to the best of his abilities.
Since the swearing in of new president Irfaan Ali, there have been changes in the hierarchy of the force. With Top Cop Leslie James and Deputy Commissioner Maxine Graham proceeding on pre-retirement leave, Deputy Commissioner Nigel Hoppie is now performing duties as the Police Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner Clifton Hicken is now leading the force’s operations.
In January of this year, Hicken along with Senior Superintendent Fazil Karimbaksh were seconded to positions outside of the force.
Hicken had been posted at the Ministry of Presidency’s Department of Citizenship while Karimbaksh was posted to the Civil Defence Commission (CDC).
Additionally, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Edgar Thomas has been appointed as head of the Presidential Guard Service, a unit which is responsible for the security of both the president and prime minister.
This move came months after Thomas was relieved of his duties as Police Commander of Region 4(A) during the elections. Thomas was relieved of his command as the head of Region Four (A) on March 5th after he reportedly failed to clear the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Region Four command centre of all persons in the wake of a bomb threat that day.
Stabroek News had previously reported that Thomas was spearheading the police operation at the GECOM Media Centre, which was also the office for the Returning Officer of District Four, when he received a telephone call from a rank informing him of his transfer.
This newspaper was informed that Thomas was removed after he reportedly refused to remove several persons, including GECOM Commissioner Sase Gunraj, and clear the premises following the bomb scare.
The instruction was reportedly given to Thomas by a Deputy Superintendent of Police; a lower rank than the one Thomas holds.
Thomas worked for years as the GPF’s Information Technology specialist
Many had deemed his immediate transfer as “unfair”.
