Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has reiterated his call for a thorough investigation into the death of 11-year-old Adriana Younge.
“We have a duty to thoroughly investigate this matter,” he said during his press conference. “They need to know whether there was foul play or not,” he added.
According to the Vice President, “I believe more than anything else that the family needs this truth.”
“If the police was involved in a coverup or anything, we want to find the truth too and we have demonstrated that when we find the truth, people face the consequences. We are not interested in a coverup,” Jagdeo emphasised.
Similar sentiments were echoed by Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall who has noted that there are many questions which remain unanswered surrounding the death of Younge, who was found dead in the pool at the Double Day Hotel, Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo (EBE) on Thursday last.
During his programme “Issues in the News” on Tuesday, the Attorney General expressed that “there are many questions to be answered at the level of the Police Force, the way the investigation unfolded and many other things.”
The child was reported missing shortly after she, her grandmother and other relatives had arrived at the establishment on Wednesday last. Despite initial searches in the pool, the child was not found. On Thursday morning, her body was discovered in the very pool.
Prior to the discovery, however, the Guyana Police Force (GPF) had issued an official statement indicating that Younge was seen leaving the hotel and entering an identifiable motorcar. This turned out to be untrue and preliminary investigations have since indicated that it was a civilian in the policing division’s command centre was responsible for the inaccuracy.
Prior to the police force admitting its error, family members were insisting that the child never left the premises, based on security footage they obtained from a neighbour.
Other actions of the police in the handling of the case also came under scrutiny, such as their apparent sloth in searching the hotel’s premises for the missing child as well as their slowness in treating the area as an active crime scene. Family members had contended that after the child was reported missing, it was “business as usual” at the establishment.
The region’s police commander Khalid Mandall had been sent on administrative leave to facilitate the investigation into the matter.
According to Nandlall, “a lot of things emanating out of this incident requires our examination, requires our analysis, requires our scrutiny and we must do so objectively and we must do so dispassionately.”
A postmortem examination on Monday conducted by three international pathologists found that Adriana died from drowning but the experts could not determine time of death based on the state of decomposition of the body. However, a toxicology report is still to be submitted.
In the meantime, the investigation into the incident continues. The Attorney General has since reaffirmed commitments made by President Dr. Irfaan Ali that an independent probe will be conducted to ensure if anyone is culpable, they can be charged.
“If there was anyone responsible for that, the government’s undertaking through the President is that an independent, professional investigation and probe will be done and if there is anyone responsible, they will be brought to justice,” he noted.
Recognising that “this is a highly contentious matter”, Nandlall emphasised that the investigation must be allowed to unfold. He also used the opportunity to express his condolences to the Younge’s family for their tragic loss.
President Ali has indicated that the circumstances surrounding the child’s death has highlighted the gaps in several systems which the government is now seeking to correct.
The Head of State has since committed to bringing in international help to review the operations of the Police Force and improve its communication strategy.
The Police Force has also since updated its standard operating procedures on dealing with missing persons reports – no longer waiting 24 hours to act upon such reports.
President Ali has further announced that the government will be taking steps to boost the country’s technological capacity to perform autopsies.
An examination is also needed on the operations of public spaces and family-and-child-friendly establishments with the view of improving safety mechanisms, the president had noted.
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