Police drug links allegations… APNU urges interdiction of officers

Aug 19, 2011 News

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-Granger joins call for independent inquiry before elections  

By Dale Andrews

A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) has called for the immediate interdiction from duty of all police officers, who are alleged to have illegal relations with narco-traffickers.
The newly-formed alliance issued the call at its weekly press conference yesterday, at which it also called for the immediate establishment of an independent and impartial inquiry to probe these recent charges against policemen.
According to the partnership’s Presidential Candidate, David Granger, the police cannot investigate themselves through its Office of Professional Responsibility and the Police Complaints Authority, as ultimately the reports land right back on the desk of the Commissioner.
The former army head made it clear that Guyanese have long since lost confidence in the Police Force, and not only from these recent allegations.
The police in a press release on Wednesday indicated that the officer who made the allegations, Assistant Commissioner Steve Merai, is yet to provide the force with evidence.
Merai on his part has hinted that he did not trust those in charge of the investigation and has so far refused to cooperate.
Granger, a retired Brigadier General, said that with the allegations made, there is no way the people of Guyana will easily forget and comfortably enter the elections period, and therefore it has to be laid to rest once and for all.
“There is no way that we can go into an election with this type of Police Force. It is rotten and I think that the level of criminality is eventually going to result in a much higher level of criminality, not only in the Police Force, but in the country as a whole,” he stated.
He explained that any inquiry would not necessarily mean a delay in the holding of general elections.
“I believe that the present situation warrants urgent action and this could be completed in a very short time,” Granger said.
APNU expressed alarm at the recent allegations, since they were made by an Assistant Commissioner at a meeting of Divisional Commanders and Heads of Departments chaired by the Commissioner of Police.
APNU pointed to the Home Affairs Minister who in his response to the issue had stated that “in any part of the world where allegations of a similar nature are raised, the political person that is responsible would be concerned…It is not something that we take lightly.”
APNU said that it too is not taking the matter lightly at all and said that it demands more than mere expressions of ministerial concern.
The political union recalled that eight members of the Police Force’s élite Presidential Guard Unit were arrested on July 26th in a case that involved the deliberate destruction of an industrial plant on the East Bank of Demerara.
The policemen were reportedly recruited by a foreign businessman to perform unprofessional jobs.
APNU also referred to numerous other incidents of Police criminality which have occurred over the past recent years, describing them as a growing catalogue of crimes committed by serving policemen.
“Some of the most notorious include the ‘Shawn Baldeo people-trafficking case’ in 1993, the ‘Thomas Carroll visa racket case’ in 2000 and the ‘Shaheed ‘Roger’ Khan death squad case’ in 2002. Senior police officers were involved in all of these criminal enterprises,” APNU stated.
According to the party, the number of police ranks who have been implicated in criminal activity is alarming.
It referred to previous utterances by the Commissioner of Police, Henry Greene, who had reported that formal complaints for “corrupt practices” against members of the Force had surged to an average of about one every 48 hours last year.
President Bharrat Jagdeo,  APNU stated, had also confessed that the Police Commissioner told him that there were about ninety policemen before the courts.
“Even President Jagdeo had to exclaim ‘Ninety policemen in a Force of about 3,000 people…it’s a lot!’  The Force’s Office of Professional Responsibility and the Police Complaints Authority clearly cannot competently cope with this ocean of criminality,” APNU said.
In addition to the call for interdiction and for an independent inquiry, APNU wants the administration to immediately implement the recommendations of the Disciplined Forces Commission and the introduction of a Security Sector Reform Action Plan, in order to reform the Police Force.
Granger told the press conference that APNU will not rule out applying more pressure on the Jagdeo administration, in addition to the calls for an inquiry.
“The Disciplined Forces Commission already has a report which speaks of the problems within the force. This and other measures can be used to apply pressure on the administration,” he said
“The Partnership is dissatisfied with the official responses and remedies to the epidemic of crime. APNU demands that the PPP/C administration stops expressing concern, starts investigating the causes for such persistent criminality, removes officers of any rank found guilty of these offences and rebuilds a credible law-enforcement Force that can ‘serve and protect’ the Guyanese people,” the media was told. Granger admitted that with the PNCR deciding not to participate in working through the parliamentary recess, the option of tabling a motion for an inquiry through this means is gone.

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