Minister of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn has described the police action in trailing Opposition Leader, Aubrey Norton as an “untidy, unnecessary and useless” exercise.
“It was an untidy, unnecessary and a useless exercise. ….We ain’t in the business of following anybody around like that and I am sure that the police, if they wanted to follow Mr Norton around would have better ways which are less obvious of following him around, if they ever wanted to follow him around,” Benn told Stabroek News in an invited comment last night.
Without divulging details, he said he has since engaged the Guyana Police Force (GPF) to determine whether it was necessary.
“I saw some video…I did speak to the police people,” Benn said.
Norton’s car was trailed by two cops on motorbikes on Monday after leaving the Golden Grove, East Coast Demerara home of Quindon Bacchus, who was fatally shot by a policeman last Friday.
He later stopped his vehicle and confronted them at which point they said they were simply “following instructions”.
Asked about the incident on Tuesday, Commissioner of Police (ag), Clifton Hicken had told Stabroek News that he was unaware that ranks from the GPF had trailed Norton.
“I don’t know anything like that… Why would the police want to trail Mr Norton?” Hicken responded.
He promised to provide a clearer response yesterday. However, several efforts made by Stabroek News to contact Hicken yesterday proved futile.
There has been no word from the force on the incident up to press time.
In a video posted on Facebook on Monday, Norton was seen being followed by two masked ranks on motorcycles. The incident occurred sometime after 12 pm.
When Norton stopped his vehicle and confronted the ranks, they informed him they were only following orders. “Do you have the right to just drive behind me?” Norton asked and was told “Sir, Sir we are just following instructions,” by one of the ranks.
On this note, Norton said it was illegal for them to follow him when he hadn’t committed a crime.
“It is out of place for y’all to be driving behind people who did not commit (a) crime…You know you are violating my rights and you don’t have the right to do it because somebody tell you it was right to violate me,” Norton informed the ranks during a brief interaction.
At his press conference on Tuesday, Norton revealed that it was not only the two cops who followed him but as he was leaving Golden Grove he observed a police vehicle also trailing him.
“What happened when I left we saw a police vehicle and two motorbikes tracing us. When I saw that I stopped and they stopped. I came out and went to the police in the vehicle and I said to them why are you tracing me. If I stop, you stop. If I move, you move. I am not violating the law, I am a law-abiding citizen. Why are you following me?” Norton recalled.
He stated that his questions to the officer in the vehicle were unanswered and moments later the vehicle turned back.
However, Norton explained that as he returned to his vehicle and drove off, he recognized the policemen on the motorcycles following him.
In the vicinity of Coldingen, East Coast Demerara he decided to turn in a bid to assess if the ranks were indeed following him. “And so I turn by Coldingen there and here it was the police again so I stopped and went to the police and said to them why are you following me?” he stated.
Norton stressed that from the response he got from the ranks, it appears as if it was a decision from the hierarchy of the force. He stated that the officers kept riding behind him until he got home.
The Opposition Leader stated that while he might write the Guyana Police Force on the matter, he is not certain whether he will receive any sort of satisfaction.
