By Kurt Campbell
[www.inewsguyana.com] – Chairman of the ongoing Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry (COI), Sir Richard Cheltenham has confirmed that he received correspondence from President Donald Ramotar instructing that the life of the Inquiry be extended to September 2014.
The COI was initially scheduled to last four months, following its April commencement date.
Cheltenham was responding to Attorney – at – Law Basil Williams who observed that such an extension has not been published in the Official Gazette.
The Chairman said he had written to the President and in his response he had promised that it will be gazetted. “I think your question is quiet proper… Whether it has been gazetted or not I don’t know,” he added.
Williams recalled that the Commissioners of the Linden COI were not allowed to go on with their business until the extension for that Inquiry was gazetted and inquired why the same procedure is not being observed in this case.
Dr. Walter Rodney, a Guyanese political activist and intellectual, died on June 13, 1980. He is believed to have been murdered and had written several books prior to his untimely demise.
The COI among other things will inquire who or what was responsible for the explosion that led to Rodney’s death, whether it was an accident or an act of terrorism and the role of some persons and agencies, if any, in his death.
