…questions silence of those who called out previous Administration
Tuesday’s shooting which saw five bandits being killed by the police after a failed robbery attempt on a Turkeyen East Coast Demerara home, would have been dubbed extra-judicial murders had the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) been in Government, says Opposition Leader Dr Bharrat Jagdeo.
The former head of state is therefore questioning the sudden silence of those critics who were vociferous in their condemnations of the previous Administration.
According to Jagdeo during a press briefing at his Church Street office, “in this case the Government highlights them as success in the fight against crime, but just imagine the PPP in office and the exact same thing happening, this would be now extra judicial killing by the racist PPP government trying to exterminate afro-Guyanese, as they said when they created that list of 400 people who…they said that we killed through extra judicial means and they included all the bandits and the victims and the policemen who were killed and you had nearly 100 Indo-Guyanese there.”
Moreover, Jagdeo, a former president, says the narrative has changed and there is no signs of those groups that protested the PPP government saying anything.
“Today the same thing happened but the narrative has changed and I don’t see the same groups that were out protesting against the PPP saying anything, it’s all quite. So it just shows how prejudice it was, how bias it was, how convenient those groups were.”
The Opposition Leader also referred to statements made by Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan in Parliament last week, criticizing him for a poor performance in the security sector.
“I think by now most people will know he has been a failure, and I have seen many people calling for his resignation and so while he is quoting statistics in the Parliament, the crime situation is just escalating on the ground to a point where people say to me we don’t call the police anymore for small issues and so it is major” said Jagdeo.
Recent police statistics have recorded an increase in robbery under arms and rape cases compared to last year at this time.
The statistics from January to May month-end, show a seven per cent increase in robbery under arms, an eight per cent increase in robberies where no instruments were used, and a four per cent increase in rape cases. Robberies were up by three per cent.
In addition, there was a 28 per cent decrease in robbery under arms where instruments other than a firearm was used, a 34 per cent decrease in larceny, and a three per cent increase in burglary.
