Leroy Smith does write factual articles!

May 30, 2018 Letters

Dear Editor,
Please permit me to respond to some contents contained in a letter to the editor and which was published in the Kaieteur News on May 20, 2018 under the caption “Why is Motie Dookie being targeted?”
Reference was made about a series of articles I wrote in relation to Deputy Superintendent Motie Dookie who once served as the head of the SWAT Unit and was the subject of a whiskey smuggling scandal.
The author of that letter boldly calls for me to write factual articles when in the same letter, she made a number of loose statements.
It is always unfortunate when journalists are starved for information while trying to report on certain issues but the moment we are able to break that barrier and gather the facts to do follow-up reports, we accused of either targeting people or reporting inaccurately.
The conduct of Mr. Dookie while serving the police force was the subject of internal scrutiny on numerous occasions and a simple check of his personal file will confirm this.
But there is something that Priya Persaud stated in her letter that seemed to have missed the eyes of the public, the Guyana Police Force and particularity its detectives.
“Did it occur to anyone that Mr. Withrite placed the nation at a great risk? The revolver which was stolen is currently being used for the numerous robberies that are currently taking place” Priya stated in her letter.
She was at the time making reference to the alleged robbery committed on former head of the SWAT Unit Lonsdale Withrite who was subsequently removed from his post and caused Dookie taking over the supervision of the unit.
It is evident that Priya Persaud knows who reportedly robbed Withrite, the real motive behind him being reportedly robbed, the exact robberies that are being perpetrated against citizens with the very gun that was misplaced during that alleged robbery committed on Withrite and where the next robbery using that very firearm would take place.
It raises a serious question as to what really happened on the night Withrite was reportedly robbed. Are we to believe that it was a well-orchestrated plan designed to see a particular outcome?
Before Priya seeks to lecture me on how to do the job I am qualified to do, she should seek to work along with the police and point them to the criminals whom she obviously knows and who are using the weapon that was issued to Lonsdale Withrite and is “currently being used for the numerous robberies that are currently taking place”
I have done countless reports and filed reports on a number of issues and officers within the Guyana Police since my main area of focus is crime and security. Yet I have never seen Priya Persaud penning a line about the subjects of those articles being targeted or calling for me to write “factual articles”
I am the journalist who broke the stories about the Withrite alleged robbery, the Corporal who was busted smuggling an AK-47 out of Eve Leary, the ASP who reportedly assaulted ranks at the TSU, the Deputy Commander who slapped a constable, the Commander who was removed from his division amidst claims of inappropriate behaviour with junior ranks, the disappearance of narcotics from the office of a senior rank’s office and so many others, all of which I did numerous follow-up stories on.
But Priya Persaud never considered my work, then, to be lacking facts or persons being targeted. Now with Mr. Dookie, she finds a voice. I guess every cow feels for her own calf.
I have a job to do and I will continue doing so without fear, favor and ill-will, wherever the story leads, I WILL FOLLOW.
Leroy Smith

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News