Southport – real inquiry, real results

Apr 18, 2026 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

Hard Truths by GHK Lall

(Kaieteur News) – The Commission of Inquiry chaired by Sir Adrian Fulford and probing for answers into the Southport, England tragedy went live with early conclusions on Monday, April 13 Three young girls, all under the age of 10, were knifed to death, six other children and two adults were wounded. Dance school killings by a sick, knife-wielding 17-year-old. If there is a single thing I would say in such harrowing circumstances, it is that Sir Adrian’s inquiry honoured the savage passing and the painful memory of the dead and injured.

A Commission of Inquiry that was genuine, with members unfettered by other considerations, and a chair that didn’t beat about the bush, or made a thorough idiot of himself. Why can’t Guyana have commissions of inquiry of such quality; men and women of that independent and fearless disposition? No country should be this handicapped. Few are the men and women here who could be proud of the products of inquiries that have been seen here.

A key finding of the Southport’s CoI was that there was “an absence of risk ownership.” Translations: those who failed to step up, report or speak out or act on what was pending, then became a real tragedy, made sure that their fingerprints were scrubbed clean of any association. All I do is urge my fellow citizens to look back in time and recall what was a raging furnace and that is now imprinted in the memory (and history of Guyana) as the Madhia School Dormitory Inferno. Great care was taken in the selection of a Commission of Inquiry. Just so, and with just the right folks. In substance, pay for a particular kind of quality or outcome, and be assured that quality is what will result. I don’t think that Guyanese have been using that word in the context of the Madhia holocaust that incinerated a score of young Indigenous students aiming for a second chance in life.

What they received was a second layer of barriers, a virtual death trap that sealed their doom. And some second-rate attendees to take just the right care of their fate. Need a certain kind of deliberation, there are those who can guarantee one of those. Need some outcomes that meant little was seen, less was heard, and almost zero known and learned. Well done, until there is the next CoI, and more such sweet gigs at whitewash and hogwash, again get an opportunity for public exhibition. In Southport, England, there was the no nonsense, pull-no-punches retired High Court Judge, Sir Adrain Fulford, heading that Inquiry. The fervent wish is that Guyana could be graced with chairs and judges and retirees like him. I will take one, even half of one. Of course, this doesn’t say much of what is mostly present in this funky town.

In Sir Adrian’s tense CoI presentation, only the first phase, a host of people wrung their hands, dried their eyes, and swore that changes will happen. From the top, there was the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, and along the way senior public servants, who know that they are being watched and, should they fail (again), their heads will be gone. The chief constable of Lancashire Constabulary apologised for missing the signs. Was that ever heard here relative to the Madhia conflagration, the Linden police killings, or any other horrors that shook the pillars of Guyanese society to its foundations? I regret having to say no. Those who held official rank, but were sloppy and lethargic and didn’t act… Nothing. Those who didn’t recognise the structural dangers and went about their business in the usual fashion. And those who led the search for truth amid the ashes and the live white rabbits that they came up with and presented to the grieving families and nation. To put differently, a trick. But there was a solemn moment of commemoration in Georgetown to get this inconvenient business out of the way. and, one more thing: to push a plate, then an envelope, in the hands of the numb, lost, and grieving, and send them back from where they came.

The dead cannot be retrieved. But their names and passing can be given the best sendoff, when a genuine effort is made via Inquiry to be about truth and justice; and what honours the dead and surviving.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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Commission of Inquiry, GHK Lall, Sir Adrian Fulford, Southport

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