With investigations still ongoing into the well-coordinated prison escape of death-row prisoner Royden Williams, Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton said that the top priority of the Joint Services must be his swift recapture.
“…Our immediate focus must be on recapturing this mass murderer…,” Norton emphasised.
In a statement issued yesterday, Norton added that major questions have to be answered by this government and called for Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn to step aside.
Norton stated that Benn’s press conference on Saturday only, “reinforced our belief that he is ill-suited to manage the Ministry of Home Affairs and the internal security of Guyana. It is time for him to step aside and allow the experts to take charge of the sector and recapture this convicted murderer.”
As of yesterday, the three people who were arrested subsequent to the escape remained in police custody, Commander of Region Seven (Cuyuni/ Mazaruni) Dion Moore said. He noted that there has been no update on the whereabouts of Williams.
The escape, the opposition leader said, raised numerous critical questions and the Ministry of Home Affairs must provide answers.
“The law states that only a prison staff member, medical officer or a minister of the convict’s denomination can have authorised access. The question then arises as to who authorised access to the prisoner for someone other than a prison staff member, medical officer, or a minister of his religious denomination? How many prison officers were responsible for transporting the prisoner to and from his holding cell? Why was an open vehicle used instead of an enclosed one? What was the whereabouts of the Mazaruni Prison boats at that time, and why was a suspicious boat lingering nearby without raising any concerns? What kind of shackles was the prisoner wearing, considering the difficulty of escaping and jumping into a river while being restrained? Equally important, who was monitoring the conversation between the prisoner and his visitor, and where are the video recordings of the escape? Did the cameras conveniently malfunction at that precise moment, minister?” he questioned.
Additionally, Norton pointed out that with the large budgetary allocation to the security sector, resources were available for the recapture of Williams and it was imperative that all resources were effectively utilised.
Furthermore, he called for all Guyanese to exercise heightened vigilance and not compromise on their safety.
“As we navigate through this challenging period, it is essential that we remain united and determined to ensure the safety and well-being of our nation,” Norton urged.
At a press conference on Saturday, Benn had said, “I want to say how upset we are at this situation. We recognized that with the information we have so far that it was well-planned, that there may be persons perhaps in the prison system and otherwise who may be involved in relation to the issue. We have to determine that properly, as a result of an investigation that has been started by the police and the prison authorities.”
Director of Prison (ag) Nicklon Elliot said on Saturday, “We are currently reviewing our standard operating procedures to see what went wrong and how we prevent something like that from happening because one escape is too much.”
The police on Saturday announced a $10 million reward for information leading to the recapture of Williams called ‘Smallie’.
On Friday, the Ministry of Home Affairs said that Williams escaped while being escorted back to his quarters from a visit with a non-Guyanese woman. He escaped with the help of heavily armed accomplices who had arrived in a speedboat at the Mazaruni Prison just around 14:30 hrs.
At the time, prison guards were escorting Williams whose feet were said to be shackled. The prison escort was fired upon with AK-47 and AR 15 automatic rifles from the boat alongside the Mazaruni River and Williams escaped with the men.
More details emerged yesterday on how his accomplices engineered his escape.
According to police sources, on Thursday at about 3.45 pm, two men including a former murder accused hired a boat from Parika, owned and piloted by a Tuschen operator. They stated that they were heading to Itaballi landing. Besides rations and kerosene they had with them a suitcase. Along the journey, the police said, they stopped the boat a short distance from Karrau Village, and opened the suitcase which revealed three rifles. They then tied up the boat operator and told him that he should cooperate with whatever instructions were given to him. They slept there that night. The next morning (Friday) about 4.30, they instructed him to navigate to an area close to the Mazaruni Prison where one man disembarked the boat with one of the rifles. The boat operator was then instructed by the former murder accused to return to where they had moored previously and to wait.
At about 2.15 pm on Friday, the police said, the boat operator heard rapid gunfire and the former murder accused instructed him to move in the direction of the beach area at the Mazaruni Prison. The boat operator said that he saw two men plunge into the water and swim to the boat. He recognized one to be the escapee and the other, the man that he had earlier dropped off. He was then instructed to go further up the Mazaruni River.
In the vicinity of BK Quarry, he told the police, his engine seized and the three men exited the boat with their belongings, each now carrying a rifle. They threatened him against reporting anything to the police and departed into the bushes.
Prison guards and the police had pursued the boat to no avail. The ministry said that members of the Joint Services have been mobilised to effect the capture of Williams and his accomplices and a preliminary investigation was underway.
All citizens in the Mazaruni and surrounding areas are being advised to take precautions and remain vigilant as the men being sought are armed and are considered extremely dangerous.
The woman who visited Williams shortly before his escape has come under immediate suspicion. Her visit enabled Williams to be out of the maximum security facility and at a location where his accomplices could mount an assault to free him. Two Guyana Prison Service ranks are also being questioned.
Last year, Williams was sentenced to death for the 2008 murder of Guyana Defence Force (GDF) officer Ivor Williams.
In 2021, Williams was found not guilty by a jury of the December 16, 2007 murders of 35-year-old Rajesh Singh and 25-year-old Fazal Hakim, at Triumph, East Coast Demerara.
In 2017, Williams along with his co-accused Dennis Williams, called “Anaconda,” was sentenced to death after they were found guilty of the Bartica massacre. In that event, 12 men, including three police officers, were killed during an almost hour-long assault. Those killed in the rampage, were police officers Lance Corporal Zaheer Zakir, and Constables Shane Fredericks and Ron Osborne, and civilians Edwin Gilkes, Dexter Adrian, Irving Ferreira, Deonarine Singh, Ronald Gomes, Ashraf Khan, Abdool Yasseen, Errol Thomas, and Baldeo Singh.
Benn said on Saturday that all efforts were being made to ensure that the crime spree of that period did not occur again.
