After instructing that no response be given to questions surrounding the payment of the $3M reward which was offered by the Guyana Police Force (GPF) for information on the murders of Isaiah and Joel Henry, Commissioner of Police (ag) Nigel Hoppie yesterday said allegations about money for information in the case vanishing are “unfounded”.
On Sunday, reporter, Travis Chase directed a message to the GPF Corporate Communications Unit (CCU) Director, Mark Ramotar and Deputy Director, Stan Gouveia, in the Joint Services Press team WhatsApp group.
The message, which was sent at 10.11 am read, “Morning Stan, Mark …… can you confirm that the $3 million dollar reward in the Joel and Isaiah Henry case was handed over to CID and that part of that sum- if not all disappeared under the watch of two very senior officers?”
After no response was given, at 11.38am, veteran journalist Dennis Chabrol followed up by asking “alternatively, can the Police Commissioner or the Home Affairs Minister please say if this is true?”
At 12.58pm, a response was sent to the group by Hoppie which stated “do not do any response”, an apparent instruction to Ramotar and Gouveia. Shortly after it was sent, Hoppie deleted the message. But before it was deleted, it had already been viewed by several members of the WhatsApp group including a number of reporters, who expressed shock at the Top Cop’s response.
Hoppie’s response, although deleted caused several members of the media to continue pressing for an answer from the force.
However, up to late last night, there was no word from the GPF on the issue.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an event held at the Leonora Magistrate’s Court yesterday afternoon, Commissioner of Police (ag) Hoppie described the allegations as “unfounded”.
“…Those allegations are unfounded,” he said.
He noted that the GPF has a policy where it does not engage on informants. “….We don’t speak on informants because it can actually jeopardize the lives of these informants and by extension their family,” Hoppie said.
Asked for clarity on whether the reward money has indeed gone missing, Hoppie repeated, “I am saying that the allegation of monies missing is unfounded”.
Questioned further on whether the police are in receipt of funds to pay the reward, Hoppie said “my thing is that I do not want to state regarding informants who would have done their work and have to be paid because (as is) internationally accepted we do now want to jeopardize the lives of these individuals who have been cooperating with the police”.
Outrageous
Meanwhile, Head of the GPF Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Senior Superintendent Wendell Blanhum described the allegations as “outrageous” and “false”.
“These allegations are being manufactured and are getting more outrageous by the day,” Blanhum said while noting, “it is part of a campaign and also a pathetic attempt to cast aspersions and smear the good name and reputation of members of the Guyana Police Force”.
Only recently, Blanhum said the GPF was forced to release video evidence to debunk a “blatant” and “dangerous” attempt to discredit investigators assigned to a “much publicized” murder investigation. On November 3rd, 2020, the GPF had announced that they were offering a $3 million reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of the person/s responsible for the murders of the Henrys as well as Haresh Singh.
Efforts made by this newspaper in January this year to find out whether the cash reward was paid to any individual/s proved futile.
