Former President, Bharrat Jagdeo believes that the findings of the recent Commission of Inquiry (COI) into an alleged plot to assassinate President David Granger, is being used to shaft senior members of the Guyana Police Force.
The Opposition Leader believes that the work of policemen who toiled hard over the years will be stymied because their politics do not find favour with the government.
“Because I believe that this government is using the COI to, putting it frankly, shaft some of the senior people in the Police Force and that it was all carefully planned not to damage the career of some individuals by this public charade, the buffoonery that took place in the COI. It was intended for that purpose, and after the comic show, a report gets written and recommendations are made and the president says, ‘I will shake up the police force’,” the former President said.
President David Granger had recently expressed grave concerns over the level of unprofessionalism in the hierarchy of the Guyana Police Force and noted that there have been significant lapses in professionalism.
Many instances of gross misconduct were brought to light during the three-week long COI into the alleged plot to assassinate the Head of State.
The findings were officially handed over to the President on August 31 by the Head of the COI, Paul Slowe. Granger had promised to make the document public soonest but he is yet to do so. Following the COI, Granger had also instructed the Police Service Commission (PSC) to halt all promotions within the Force.
Now that the life of the Commission has expired, Jagdeo believes that there are ulterior motives afoot to staff the Commission with cronies of the government.
“In this case, the President is saying, ‘I am going to shake up this whole police force because someone made an allegation that they wanted to kill me and then in 2017, I put in place a Commission of Inquiry and the Commission of Inquiry found that there were deficiencies in the investigation of my matter, my personal matter and that’s the reason for shaking up a police force.’ This is only in Banana Republic these things happen,” the Opposition Leader said.
During the course of the COI, personality clashes among senior officers and failure by officers to follow standard operating protocols were highlighted.
The COI heard that the Crime Chief, Wendell Blanhum instructed that Nizam Khan – the man who allegedly attempted to hire someone to kill the President – to be released on bail.
