The recent conferences of the police force and the prison service have been shadowed by horrendous crimes and failures that one hopes there was serious introspection at these gatherings and that the government will tame the hoopla about how well things are going and face the facts.
On February 15 this year, Akeem Wong, a rapist serving a 15-year sentence escaped from the Mazaruni Prison. According to the Guyana Prison Service (GPS), the escape occurred at around 7.20 am. At the time, Wong and an inmate were working in the fields in the custody of a Prison Officer. Wong then requested to defecate which the officer granted him permission to do. After around five minutes had passed, the officer checked on Wong and discovered him missing.
There was no public reporting of a sighting of Wong for some 22 days until he was placed at Saxacalli, 25 miles south of Parika, March 8 and where he was alleged to have gruesomely chopped to death David Gomes, 49, and his 75-year-old mother Nellie Gomes after they had extended hospitality to him. The assailant has since disappeared.
Escapes have become synonymous with the prison system as has unaccountability. Were the heads of the police and prison service to have been held accountable for the various egregious failures under their tenure the country would have experienced a series of changes in the hierarchy over the last two decades and at the Ministry of Home Affairs. Since Wong’s escape on February 15, there has been no update from the GPS – or the police – on the search for the escapee despite the trauma that the country suffered as a result of the 2002 Camp Street prison break. Did the GPS and the Guyana Police Force (GPF) simply show disinterest in the search for Wong thinking that he would be found during routine checks? Or did the need to recapture him just simply fall off the radar?
It is remarkable that an escapee from the high security Mazaruni Prison has been able to evade capture for 22 days given the difficult terrain in the area and to journey to Saxacalli. How it was accomplished may never be known but certainly if the GPS and GPF were on high alert for him, as they should have been, he would have been recaptured. That was not to be and Wong now stands accused of a horrific double murder.
As the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, President Irfaan Ali should require the prison service and the Home Affairs Ministry to provide an explanation on what transpired from February 15 up to March 8 and what steps are being taken to immediately recapture Wong. A decision should then be made on what remedial steps should be taken to address weak security There is no guarantee that any action will be taken. The January 2024 report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Mahdia fire was scathingly critical of the acting Chief Fire Officer, Gregory Wickham but no action has been taken against him. The failure to establish accountability red lines for the leadership of the Joint Services presages more debacles. The government should take heed of this.
The murders at Saxacalli were not the only only problem for the Joint Services in recent days. Just a week ago this newspaper editorialised about the inexplicable collapse of the case against Neil Madramoootoo who was accused of the fatal shooting of his fiancée, Ashmin Mahadeo, a development which called into question the quality of the case led in court by the police.
Last week there was the spectacular disintegration of yet another high-profile matter, the conspiracy case surrounding the flight from the Mazaruni Prison of death row prisoner Royden ‘Smallie’ Williams, perhaps the most feared person in the prison system. So audacious and timed to perfection was his escape that it no doubt required infiltration of the prison security and compromising of personnel at various levels. Six persons were charged with the conspiracy including senior prison officials. On Friday, Magistrate Crystal Lambert threw the case out.
What quality of work was invested by the police in developing evidence in this very important case? Very little it would seem at a time when the county can ill-afford a climate of insecurity. Those in the GPS who are responsible for building cases – particularly high-profile ones – and prosecuting them must examine what led to the failure of this one and take urgent steps to redress the shortcomings.
While it is an important plank in building public confidence, one can’t but think that the police force is devoting an inordinate amount of time to community meetings rather than using intelligence-led policing and boots on the ground to root out some of the crime that is arising and to maintain a higher operational profile. There are clearly problems in the security sector and it behooves President Ali to address them urgently.
