Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall has condemned Leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC) Nigel Hughes for his ‘irresponsible and inflammatory’ remarks in urging that an official police investigation be rejected by members of the public.
According to reports, Hughes has urged family members of the two men allegedly killed by police in Linden, Region Ten (Upper Demerara-Berbice), to reject the ongoing investigation into the circumstances surrounding their deaths. The investigation is being conducted by the Guyana Police Force’s (GPF) Office of Professional Responsibility with support from the Regional Security System (RSS).
“In a civilized society, an investigation must be done and that investigation requires due process to be extended to both the victims as well as the villains, and eyewitnesses are also required to be interviewed so important and necessary bits and pieces of evidence is accumulated. There is no other process in the civilized world,” Nandlall explained on Tuesday during his programme “Issues in the News”.
“Nigel Hughes is a lawyer, he knows all of this, yet he is quoted in the press as making the most reckless, irresponsible and inflammatory statements. And these are not isolated statements, these are statements that Nigel Hughes has consistently shown a proclivity for publishing,” Nandlall contended.
Specifically, Hughes is quoted as saying, “The Guyana Police Force cannot investigate these murders. They can’t. Under no circumstances we will accept the RSS. The RSS failed this country with the Henry boys.”
In condemning the AFC Leader, Nandlall highlighted that “Nigel Hughes is telling the country to disregard the law enforcement agencies of Guyana, disregard the Regional Security System, this is a regional law enforcement agency, a Caribbean mechanism…so whom should we get to investigate these things and on what basis is he jumping to these conclusions?”
Nandlall also debunked Hughes’ reference to the Henry boys: 16-year-old Isaiah Henry and his 19-year-old cousin, Joel Henry, who were brutally murdered in September 2020.
Nandlall reminded that the RSS investigation resulted in persons being charged with the boys’ murders.
“What evidence does Mr Hughes has to suggest that the investigation is somehow compromised?” Nandlall questioned.
Meanwhile, the Attorney General also addressed calls by Hughes for the families of the Linden men killed to be compensated.
Nandlall pointed out that, “the government is not ruling out any form of compensation but things have to be done in a proper way, in an orderly way. You must have an investigation; there must be some findings and then certain eventualities will flow.”
The Legal Affairs Minister contended that Hughes’ posture on this and other similar types of situations demonstrates that he is “out of his depth when it comes to responsibility”.
“[He] cannot be anywhere close to a government…He doesn’t have the sense of maturity and he doesn’t have the presence of mind,” Nandlall posited.
The GPF-RSS investigation into the fatal police shooting of 21-year-old Ronaldo Peters has been completed and the file sent to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) for legal advice while the probe into the other fatal shooting – which claimed the life of 32-year-old Keon Fogenay – remains ongoing.
Peters was reportedly shot dead by a plain clothes police officer on April 7. During protests the following day in the town of Linden in which residents were calling for justice, Fogenay was shot dead, also allegedly by police.
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