Assassination plot to kill president ... Businessman was framed by complainant

Assassination plot to kill president … Businessman was framed by complainant – witness

Aug 03, 2017 News

Detective Laundry was recalled to the stand in the COI to investigate the plot to kill Granger

Detective Corporal Jermaine Laundry told the Commission of Inquiry, (COI) into the alleged plot to kill President Granger that police had acquired a statement from a woman, who essentially reported that Andriff Gillard had planned to frame businessman, Nizam Khan.
Gillard had reported to the police that a bounty of $7M was offered to him to kill President Granger some time in 2015. The man who filed the report had claimed that he went to borrow $6M from a businessman, said to be gold miner. Instead, the businessman offered $7M.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (Ret’d) Paul Slowe is heading the inquiry mandated by President Granger into the persons, places, times, circumstances and events by, and through which, allegations and reports were made of a plan to assassinate him.
The commission will investigate and review the full range of the Guyana Police Force’s actions and responses to the report of the assassination plot and the extent to which such actions were conducted or executed, with due diligence.
Detective Laundry had testified to the Commission before but he was recalled to the stand by Attorney-at-law, Ian Chang. Chang is representing the interest of the Guyana Police Force.
While in the witness box yesterday, Laundry read out loud a six- page statement provided by Luanna Walker. Walker was a former landlord of Gillard. In the Statement given on July 19, last, the woman detailed to the police, Gillard had planned to frame businessman, Nizam Khan, for a plot to kill President Granger.
Walker, of Diamond Housing Scheme, East Bank Demerara, had related to the police that Gillard, who was a barber, had rented a space at her premise to ply his trade.
She said that the man had lived in close proximity to her and that she had briefly known businessman, Nizam Khan.
According to the statement which Walker gave the police, Gillard had told her that he had been involved in a legal dispute over a property. The woman had told investigators of a conversation she had with Gillard in which he blamed the businessman for orchestrating his removal from the said property; a property which he wanted to purchase.
She said that Gillard told her that Khan had promised to ensure that he rots in jail.
As a result, Gillard told her, “I will go and say he paying me to kill Granger.” The woman however is said to have warned Gillard not to do so.
She reportedly said, “I then told Andriff not to do that; if is not Nizam helped him with his business? But he tell me that the man wicked and he want to ‘deh’ with his wife.
“I then told Andriff not to do that because he knows the man never did …if the man wrongs him he will get his reward; just don’t go and do that.”
The woman had also reported that Gillard’s child mother told her that he was planning to do something to Nizam Khan, some time after he had beaten her.
Walker told the police that the man had been in the habit of beating his child mother but they would soon get back together after major disagreements.
“She used to come over at my home several times and complain.”
The woman had also told the police that Gillard had rented her premises from her but he would always be in default in paying the rent.
The witness said that the woman would have to go many times to the station to make reports on Gillard for her rent.
Nizam Khan, the businessman at the centre of the plot, denied offering Gillard $7 million to kill President Granger. The businessman, of Diamond East Bank Demerara, took the stand at the COI on Monday.
He related to the commission that he and Gillard were neighbours but their relationship was strained because Gillard had robbed him of some $1.8 million.
Khan said that Gillard had accused him of having an affair with his wife and even supplied the police with false information. Gillard had accused him of stealing radio sets and threatening to shoot him.
The man said that although he owned a gun, it was a .32 Taurus pistol, which he had never used or thought of using.