Norton wants Int’l probe of GPF

May 01, 2025 News

─ promises new CoP under APNU Gov’t

Kaieteur News- Opposition leader, Aubrey Norton, is advocating for an international investigation into the Guyana Police Force (GPF), which he said has been failing the people of Guyana miserably.

Opposition leader, Aubrey Norton

Norton said the Force has shown its incompetence and, like the PPP Government, has shown that it is complicit in crime. The opposition leader, in a live broadcast on Wednesday, continued his advocacy for justice for 11-year-old Adriana Younge, whose body was discovered floating in the pool of the Double Day Hotel at Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo, some 20 hours after she and relatives visited there to swim. While a post-mortem examination ruled that the child died by drowning, family members are adamant that she did not drown in the pool and that there had to have been foul play. They said that had the police taken their reports and the investigation more seriously, their child could have been alive today.

Norton said everything has to be done to ensure that “this particular crime is not thrown under the carpet.”

“When you have a police force in which the people do not believe that they will investigate or they have the capacity to solve crimes, we are in deep trouble,” Norton noted, repeating calls for an international inquiry into the force.

The APNU leader also took aim at the government, which he said is operating as if all is well. “But all Guyanese know all is not well. Every Guyanese know there has not been a proper investigation into this crime. To tell us the child drowned is inadequate. It does not tell us how the child drowned, who committed the act, and no one has been brought to justice.”

He said no one knows if the persons the Force claimed to have arrested are still in police custody. “We say this to you, we demand a proper investigation into the death of Adriana Younge. This investigation must have respectable, international investigators. We cannot allow the Guyana Police Force to investigate itself. It’s like charging Caesar to be tried by Caesar.”

Meanwhile, in efforts to reform the Police Force, Norton said an APNU Government will appoint a new commissioner of police, since the current top cop is neither certified nor qualified for the job. He said Guyanese want a professional Police Force and his government will ensure a reform to achieve that objective.

“We will depoliticise the Guyana Police Force because we are well aware that it has been politicised to work against the people of Guyana. It is our intention to improve training in the Guyana Police Force, both at home and abroad, with special emphasis on improving the investigative capacity of the force.”

He said the force will be provided with the necessary resources to do its work, including operating in a professional manner to be able to enforce law and order.

“The existing CCTV system must not be used conveniently, but must be at the disposal of the GPF to solve any crime, regardless of who commits the crime. Whether you are rich or poor, the GPF must serve everyone, and we commit to you that the GPF will always be allowed under an APNU administration to enforce law and order in a fair and transparent way. We must bring this special treatment to family, friends and favourites to an end. We must end this approach of different strokes for different folks. The police force must serve the people of Guyana.”

Norton, along with other opposition and civil society organisations, has been at the centre of calls for the top cop to vacate office over the mishandling of the Adriana Younge case and the police’s failure to deliver fairly to the people of Guyana.

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News