Latest update September 13th, 2026 10:36 AM
Gregory Smith was paid $1M to kill Rodney – witness
By Latoya Giles
The Commission of Inquiry heard on Friday that former army sergeant, Gregory Smith, was allegedly paid $1 million to kill co-founder of the Working People’s Alliance, Walter Rodney. This revelation came from convicted felon and former murder accused Robert Gates, also known as Clive Gibbs and Clive DeNobrega.
Former murder accused Robert Gates.
According to Gates, Smith was also offered a safe trip out of Guyana once he had completed his “mission”. The witness told the commission that he had seen Smith prior to Rodney’s death and he had disclosed to him his plan.
Gates, who claimed that he was part of a “death squad” and was given a special assignment to infiltrate the WPA by then Crime Chief Cecil “Skip” Roberts, said that he had warned Smith against carrying out the act.
According to the witness, he and Smith were at the time both working intelligence for the Guyana Defence Force. They had several meetings where they exchanged information.
Smith, according to Gates, told him that he was constructing ‘walkie talkies’ for the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) Leader.
The witness explained that he too was offered a whopping “$1M” to kill Dr Rupert Roopnaraine. Gates claimed that he was at the time carrying out a mandate. He was at the time working as a “bodyguard” for Roopnaraine, he said.
Gates said that like Smith, he was offered a safe trip out of Guyana. However, he said that he could not follow through with the plan since Roopnaraine had become a friend.
He explained that he had met Roopnaraine in 1979 while the latter was arrested and detained at the CID on a charge of arson. According to Gates, it was while Roopnaraine was in custody that an offer to work for him was made.
Gates said that he was getting a salary of about $365 from the force and was offered $500 from Roopnaraine. “I accepted the offer because it was very lucrative.”
He added that when he took his resignation to the Crime Chief, Roberts called former Prime Minister, Forbes Burnham and told him something.
“There were three phones, a white, a red and a black. ‘Skip’ picked up the red phone and said Comrade Leader we have got the man.”
Gates claimed that he was offered a promotion to Sergeant and an added $500 on his salary to go undercover into the WPA. The commission also heard from Gates that he was given several allowances by other persons, including “agents”. These allowances could run like around $1500.
Soon after, Gates said that he started gathering information from the WPA and was giving it back to the Police. According to him, the information was in turn being filtered to the PNC.
The former murder accused testified too that he had planted two listening devices, one in his vehicle and another at the WPA office, which he claimed provided valuable information to the police.
He recalled reporting to an Officer, whom he referred to as “Chico” and late Police Commissioner Laurie Lewis, whom he claimed was Head of the Joint Service Intelligence at the time.
Gates testified that the WPA was at the time collecting arms and ammunition. He recalled, too, that he was once sent to collect a five pound milk tin which was filled with guns and ammunition and which he later took to his superiors who then told him that it would be ‘doctored’ and any attempt to use it after that would mean it would explode, killing the user.
Gates alleged that he was informed by Smith that he was making ‘walkie talkies’. According to Gates, the device would be imported from Russia from another contact who worked undercover. He added that after this, Smith told him that instead of giving Rodney the “walkie talkie”, a bomb would have been handed over to him.
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