Former GPL employee receives death threats

Jul 02, 2010 News

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– accuses cops of leaking information

Former Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) employee Allan Savory says he fears for his life following the receipt of a few telephone calls from a person who is blaming him for the murder of his late boss, former Chief Security Officer, Clifford Peters.
Savory was one of the employees who was with Peters when he was shot dead by gunmen on May 4 last year during an operation in the Lamaha Park area.
To make matters worse, Savory is accusing the police of lacking in confidentiality, since news of his report of the threats was filtered back to the source minutes after he left the East La Penitence Station.
Speaking with this newspaper yesterday, Savory said that since the murder of Peters, he had the feeling that he was being suspiciously regarded, both by fellow employees of the GPL and some members of Peters’ family.
Although Savory was never fingered by the police in relation to Peters’ murder, there were some suspicions that he knew one of the persons responsible for the killing, something he vehemently denies.
Rather, he is insisting that it was he who chased after the bandits and alerted persons in the area that Peters was shot.
He said that some newspaper reports also painted a negative picture of what really transpired and had cast a shadow over his character.
Two persons were charged with Peters’ murder, but one was subsequently released after the prosecution could not come up with enough evidence to link him to the crime.
This was despite the fact that he was reportedly picked out in an identification parade.
Recalling the sequence of events that occurred on that fateful day in May last year, Savory said that he did not leave for the location with his fellow employees but joined them later after collecting his vehicle from a mechanic shop.
He said that when he arrived in Lamaha Park, he saw Peters and two other employees on a dam removing wires from illegal connections.
After collecting the illegal wires, the two employees left with a portion which they took to the company vehicle which was parked several yards away on the road, leaving Savory and Peters on the dam.
There were still a few illegal connections, and according to Savory, Peters was in the process of identifying where they were leading when he was confronted by a man armed with a gun.
“I just saw this guy walk up to him and snatch his shirt and a scuffle ensued between the two of them. So I was like, ‘is just so people does look fuh trouble’. I was going to Mr. Peters and didn’t see this other guy who just came up and pointed a gun at me and was like, ‘lie de F#@$ down tall man,” Savory recalled.
He said that by lying face down he could not see the face of the gunman who was standing over him.
Meanwhile, Peters continued to scuffle with the other gunman and was apparently getting the upper hand in the battle.
This caused the gunman to call out for assistance from his colleague who was watching Savory.
Savory said that he later heard about two or three gunshots and he managed to get up and run to the safety of the road.
“I am the person that started making noise for persons in the area to come out. By then one of the gunmen relieved the mortally wounded Mr. Peters of his firearm and discharged several rounds at him with it. He also was attempting to take off Mr. Peters’ rings but because of the noise I was making they decided to run,” Savory recalled.
He said that he decided to run after the men, all the while raising an alarm, hoping that persons in the nearby Joint Services Housing Scheme would have responded and cut off the gunmen’s escape.
But eventually Savory gave up the chase and returned to the scene of the shooting where his other shell-shocked colleagues were frantically trying to lift Peters into their vehicle. They rushed him to the nearby Davis Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Savory said he was peeved at media reports that claimed that after the men emerged from the bushes, he was engaged in a heated argument with them. He said the media reports indicated that he had called out to Peters who came to his rescue and was subsequently shot dead.
But that was only the beginning of Savory’s troubles.
On Monday evening he received a threatening phone call from an unknown number and the person claimed to be a relative of the dead Clifford Peters.
“The person was like, ‘Allan, whey yuh deh?’ I asked who it was and the person repeated the question. I kept asking who it was but the person did not say. All he said was, ‘you want to know who is this, I is Mr. Peters family, the same man wha you set up fuh kill.’”
Savory said that he became angry with the caller and denied that he had set up the murder of Peters.
“The man said that he was told that I set up the killing and he was just thawing off and now he come out to deal with me,” Savory related.
He said that he terminated the call but the person called again and this time told him that ‘ah gon mek sure ah kill yuh in front ah yuh family’.
Savory said that he went to the Brickdam Police Station and reported the threat.
On Tuesday he received another phone call, this time from someone he knows, who told him that some men in a car were seeking information on him.
“The man asked me why I sent people by him. I told him that I didn’t, but he said that the men were saying that they had to know who killed their family,” Savory said.
He again went to the police, this time the East La Penitence Police Station, where he reported what had happened.
But minutes after leaving the station, he received a disturbing telephone call from the person who had relayed the information.
The man accused him of giving the police his name, something that certainly troubled Savory.
“I was like, father wha’ going on hey. You see what stupidness we in hey? I didn’t want to give the police the guy’s name but I give them he name. You know they call de boy and tell he I went to the station and give he name,” Savory said.
Judging from the information he received, the person looking for him is a well-known high profile criminal who was recently released from the Mazaruni Prison.
But if the information that he is receiving is true, Savory is worried that he is being directly linked to Peters’ murder.
“Why the family will want to feel that I have some knowledge and that I know these men who killed him or I set them up to murder Mr. Peters? I am the person that went to Mr. Peters’ aid.”
Savory admitted that he and the late Peters had their differences at work, but these were settled amicably, with Peters acting in a fatherly capacity on these occasions.
“Mr. Peters was like a father to me because he was more involved in my domestic situation that I was going through and he was the person that was assisting me. While the manager was on my case to get me dismissed, Mr. Peters was the person that was keeping me working at GPL and that is what a lot of people are trying to hide from Mr. Peters’ family,” Savory said.
Savory’s service with the GPL was terminated shortly after the incident and he believes that the suspicion about him was filtered to the dead man’s family.
He disclosed that even at a wake held for Peters he was asked to leave and told not to attend the funeral.
Savory maintains his innocence of any involvement and hopes that the police will investigate the source of the threats that he is receiving.

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