President orders external help with investigation

Dec 18, 2011 News

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Top Cop steps aside over rape allegation …

President Donald Ramotar has announced that Assistant Commissioner of Police Leroy Brummel will head the force in the absence of embattled Commissioner Henry Greene, who is to proceed on leave to facilitate an investigation into a rape allegation that was made against him.
Reports reaching Kaieteur News stated that following the allegations Greene wrote to the President requesting to proceed on leave while the investigations are taking place.

“I have agreed that he should go on leave while the investigation is going on,” the President said in a recent interview with the state owned National Communications Network (NCN).
“I’ve also raised with the Minister of Home Affairs that they should seek other assistance, external assistance in this investigation…so that it can be done very quickly and that justice can be done, that it can be investigated as fast as possible so that we can put this behind us,” President Ramotar said.
The President’s announcement comes a few days after several calls were made for Greene to step down as Commissioner in light of the damning allegations.
On Monday last a 34-year-old woman shocked the nation when she gave a tell it all interview to several media houses, detailing a sordid encounter with the Top Cop on November 22, six days before the last general elections.
The woman spoke about receiving threats to her life if she ever went public with the allegations.
This, she said, resulted in her only making the public disclosure more than two weeks after the alleged incident.
She said that she was so overwhelmed and could no longer live with her conscience that she decided to reveal details of the alleged ordeal.
The Alliance for Change had first made the call with its Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan demanding that Greene be immediately interdicted from the Guyana Police Force.
“As a matter of fact, based on what we have heard, we feel that he ought to tender his resignation or the President ought to dismiss him….but at the very least at this stage… an interdiction,” Ramjattan said at a recent press conference that his party hosted.
According to Ramjattan, a citizen seeking the assistance of the Commissioner of Police and having to wait late at nights and the talk of money involved would constitute an abuse of the Commissioner’s office even if there was some level of consent… it would require an immediate resignation or dismissal on the part of Greene.
The AFC Chairman opined that if it were any other ordinary citizen that was being accused of such a heinous act, “you would have already been locked up, probably with no bail for several weeks.”
Ramjattan, a lawyer by profession, was of the opinion that the case will represent a big test for the Guyana Police Force and its commitment to the provisions of the Sexual Offences Act.
It is very unfortunate that it is our Commissioner who will be bearing the brunt…I hope that it is dealt with and it is not that we pass laws and there is no enforcement.”
The AFC Prime Ministerial Candidate for the recently held General Elections, Raphael Trotman, adding his sentiments to the now topical issue, said that the matter was the first real test for Head-of- State Donald Ramotar.
Speaking to the call for an interdiction of the Commissioner, who is already past retirement age and is current on an extension contract, Trotman was worried that Greene remaining there could impact on the investigation.
Greene’s predecessor, Former Commissioner Winston Felix had also called on Greene  “do the honourable thing” and step down from his post.
“Since he has been interdicting ranks who have committed similar and lesser breaches of  the law, I think he has one honourable course of action to take and to do anything otherwise, would be to force the hands of his superiors,” said Felix.
When contacted, Greene had told this publication that Felix, first, has no credibility to be calling for his resignation.
He continued to play down the allegations.
“Let God be the judge. It’s not prudent for me to make any comments right now. I’ve sought legal advice on that matter and it is engaging the attention of my lawyers,” Greene said.
A Partnership for National Unity’s youth arm ‘Youth for Transformational Change’ last week picketed Greene’s home in Lamaha Springs, calling for his resignation.
Similar calls for Greene to step aside were also made by the women’s advocate body Red Thread and the Guyana Association of Women Lawyers.
The association said that the allegation is a very serious one and requires an immediate and thorough investigation by the Guyana Police Force.
They stressed that Greene, who is an Attorney-at-law, ought to know that he should not be performing the duties of Head of the Guyana Police Force while the said Police Force is investigating an allegation made against him. But there are some concerns by several members of the force who believe that the commissioner should step down once and for all.
“There is a possibility that he could still return to the job and those who are carrying out the investigation will know that they will still have to face him if he should return as the Top Cop.
Crime Chief Seelall Persaud dismissed any suggestion that the Top Cop had in any way influenced the investigations.
He said that the Commissioner has not given any instructions regarding the investigation.
“Standard operational procedures are being followed. No, we haven’t approached the Commissioner for a statement as yet. We have to do a number of things in relation to the statement that the woman gave,” the Crime Chief told Kaieteur News.

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