Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall, SC this afternoon schooled Opposition Member of Parliament Roysdale Forde, SC on what it means to be a responsible politician and leader.
Nandlall was at the time delivering his contributions during the ongoing debate in the National Assembly on Budget 2022. He responded to remarks made earlier by Forde regarding “extrajudicial killings”.
But Nandlall debunked the Opposition’s allegations, reminding that these claims have already been proven to be untrue by an investigative piece undertaken and published by a local newspaper.
“I thought they would have graduated from such ignorance. But here again, it’s fresh before us,” Nandlall expressed.
He went on to question, “what is he calling extrajudicial killing? Apparently, any person who died at the hands of the police is extrajudicial killing and by some somersault of logic, the government is responsible.”
Nandlall explained that anywhere in the world, there are instances of “police excesses” but he reasoned that “government is not responsible for that”.
In fact, the Attorney General released statistics from the Guyana Police Force (GPF) which showed that between May 2015 to March 2020, 41 Guyanese died at the hands of law enforcement officials – a period under the APNU+AFC Administration.
Nandlall reminded of the stories of Lallbachan Bachan who died whilst in the Suddie Lockups in July 2019 and of Kallicharan Saywack who was found dead in the Sparendaam Lockups in January 2019.
“I represented their families. I went to the High Court and I sued the Attorney General for compensation. I didn’t jump on a housetop and tried to make political mileage and treat their tragedy like a political football. I did what the law said. I never accused them [the government] of extrajudicial killing. That is how responsible politicians and leaders behave,” the Attorney General posited.
