Granger denies PNC links to criminality

Jul 23, 2014 News

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 – cites Roger Khan as evidence of PPP involvement

 

Leader of the Peoples National Congress (PNC) David Granger has responded to accusations made by General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Clement Rohee, that the PNC is involved with criminal elements.

“The PNC has always stood on the side of law and order and we have never received dirty money, never received money from criminals, and never been the beneficiaries of the proceeds of crime. So I cannot say what Mr. Rohee is talking about.”

According to Granger, contrary to the assertions made about the PNC, “it is well established that a person such as Roger Khan who has been convicted in another jurisdiction for cocaine trafficking and other crimes was a close associate of the PPP”.

“He actually published a whole page advertisement in the newspaper saying that he was collaborating with the police under the PPP, in what he called crime fighting. So when it comes to criminality, the PNC has never been the beneficiary of any proceeds from crime, so I don’t know what he (Rohee) is talking about” said Granger.

Rohee in making his assertions said that “evidence is there to show the PNC’s strong connection with the criminal underworld, the most recent being a photograph in circulation showing Mr. Granger at a function and in seemingly deep conversation with Kevin Fields, an alleged bandit who was shot dead a few days ago.”

Granger said that he went to Agricola to attend the funeral of Shaquille Grant, (the teen that was killed by the police) and while embracing his mother, Kevin Fields brought a bottle of water for her.

“The snapshot would show I was wearing a black shirt and that my arm was around the mother of Shaquille Grant. I meet thousands of people every time I go out, I don’t ask them to identify themselves. I didn’t know that the picture was taken and I certainly was not responsible for posting it to the social media, everywhere I go I meet people and embrace a lot of people.”

Rohee also mentioned that “the late Opposition leader Desmond Hoyte attended Linden ‘Blackie’ London’s funeral, the coffin was draped with the Guyana flag, while he was hailed as a freedom fighter by the PNC. All of this was done in Mr. Hoyte’s presence.”

“It is this same old PNC that regards the February 23, 2002 prison escapees as ‘freedom fighters’. PNC top officials even visited some of the escapees at their hideouts at various parts of the country.”

Granger in response said that “Mr. Hoyte had nothing to do with any allegations of Linden London, but everyone was disturbed that the police in the full glare of the camera in a huge crowd could shoot a man with his hands in the air in cold blood. That was what Mr. Hoyte was concerned about…the inhumane nature of his death”.

The opposition leader said that the words about “liberation and freedom fighter were not words used by Mr. Hoyte, those were words attributed to a certain politically prominent person of another party, Mr. Hoyte never used those words to my recollection”.

Granger said that it was he, who as the Leader of the opposition, brought a motion in the National Assembly to investigate “all of the deaths that occurred between 2000 and 2010, it was the Speaker who altered my question to 2004, but I had a good reason for putting it to 2000. That is to say that is the year in which Linden ‘Blackie’ London was killed.”

According to Granger “the PNC was never accused of having anything to do with the persons who broke out of jail in 2002…the party never benefited from anything that they did. We have always condemned criminal behaviour, what we do know is that in the years following the break out there were numerous massacres”.

Among other things, Granger outlined that “Former Home Affairs Minister Mr. Ronald Gajraj was brought before a Presidential Commission of Inquiry; he was forced to resign because of his involvement in the troubles. In fact the wording of the Presidential COI spoke of his being involved in the conduct of a death squad.”

“So when we are talking about the criminal period following the 2002 jailbreak we are speaking about PPP activity, about people who are boasting about their links with the PPP,” said Granger.

“There is no other period in Guyanese history where policemen were killed because they were being used by the political directorate to pursue an agenda which had nothing to do with law enforcement.”

“There is abundant evidence that officials were collaborating with Roger Khan, there is abundant evidence that a government letter head was actually used to acquire electronic tracking equipment to allow the criminals to pinpoint cell phones and after that was done people were hunted down like dogs. That was not the PNC’s doing.”

“I would like an enquiry into that entire period and I called for one, I am concerned with the deaths. This was the period in which a Minister of the Government, Satyadeo Sawh, was killed, and up to now the government has not even conducted an inquest into the death of a Minister, the assassination of a Minster. What can explain that? Let Mr. Rohee explain that.”

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