While agreeing that the allegations made by policeman Dion Bascom must be looked into, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday said that the ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP) would not condone illegalities by anyone.
Jagdeo also gave notice that the Guyana Police Force (GPF), which allows its officers to moonlight as security personnel, may have to end the practice as it does not bode well for impartiality in the execution of duties by those officers as it relates to those who have engaged them.
Jagdeo was speaking at a press conference yesterday in wake of Bascom’s claims, including the alleged cover up by the GPF in the murder of Ricardo ‘Paper shorts’ Fagundes.
“…The People’s Progressive Party will not condone any illegal act on the part of any of those individuals that I mentioned or others for that matter. People have to face consequences for their actions, whatever their action is. And that is where we stand today,” he further added.
Jagdeo pointed out that Presi-dent Irfaan Ali speaks for government and the party and that he has already “made it clear that he has given direction to the police force to have a full and complete investigation, with external support.”
In his capacity as General Secretary of the PPP, Jagdeo said that the party stands with decisions of the president and will “not have its reputation sullied by any individual”.
“The concerns of ordinary people and the people we looked at in their faces, people of every race, every walk of life, those are the ones that drive us to work hard, every single day… not the concerns of these individuals,” he said.
Gold dealer Azruddin Mohamed this week said that one of his competitors in the gold industry – who he did not name – is the driving force behind the allegations levelled against him and members of the Guyana Police Force by Bascom.
In a statement, issued on his Team Mohamed’s Facebook page, Mohamed said that Bascom and the gold dealer share close relations since the former was integral in the setting up of a security service for the latter.
“This so-called gold dealer happens to be a close friend of the detective who recently came out with some damning revelations about cover-ups evidence in the murder of a friend of ours. That very policeman was the one who assisted to establish his security service and who would have worked with him during his annual vacation – this is well known to hundreds of people,” the statement said.
Bascom’s allegations, including that a senior police officer was paid off to bury the Fagundes investigation, have since triggered a probe by the police force’s Office of Professional Respon-sibility.
Jagdeo cited the press conference held earlier this week where the acting Commissioner Clifton Hicken confirmed that police ranks would sometime moonlight
“This practice will have to change. When I listened to the Commissioner of Police about Bascom and they were talking about who he was working with and whether he was moonlighting or not, the commissioner said that this was a sanctioned practice of the police and it has gone on for many, many years, including the five years of APNU,” he said.
According to Jagdeo, police officers, according to GPF policy, would help to escort large amounts of gold. “When they buy the gold, the police is then paid, it is a standard practice…it didn’t happen recently. We have to find another safe way of doing this because when this happens, there is a coziness that develops between elements in the police and these people, because of that relationship. They are working legally but the coziness develops there… therefore, things have to change,” he said.
Jagdeo said he does not know if Bascom “is credible or not” but he has made allegations and these must be looked into.
Referring to President Ali saying that the police have asked for foreign help in its investigations, he said that a thorough probe must be done.
“I have no sense of obligation to anyone. It is ordinary people who are beating the bush to get this party re-elected. And so that is our position on this one. We will not countenance any illegality by anyone,” he stressed.
