Jagdeo should do the honourable thing and step down and give someone else within his party the chance to stamp his authority - a fearless leader, who has the confidence in confronting the problems in Guyana head on. Delay is detrimental.
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President Jagdeo dissatisfied with crime fighting
strategies ‘I have made it clear what I wanted…to clean out the situation in Buxton’ PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo has again made it unequivocally clear that he is not satisfied with the work of the local security forces in dealing with the current crime scourge plaguing the country. As such, the Guyanese Head of State is calling on the security forces to “rethink their strategies”. The
President, in
an interview over the weekend with the Government Information Agency
(GINA), pointed out that Government has made several efforts to address
the spiraling crime situation in Guyana and to this end has given all it
could in terms of policies, resources and morale support to the Law
Enforcement Agencies. Unfortunately, these efforts have not always yielded positive
results, Mr.
Jagdeo said. He,
however, asserted that “we have the capacity in the Police and Army to do
so (but) I am very unhappy that it is not being done”. He also
expressed concern that because of a lack of information on gross
inaccuracies in the media, people are of the view that the Government is
not dealing with the crime
situation as a priority. Responding to rumours that he had requested that the Army and
Police “hold back” on fighting crime, especially on the Buxton situation, President Jagdeo said this is far from the
truth. “I’ve
made my orders clear. It’s either that these orders are not handed down or
some people on the ground are involved in things they should not be
involved in,” the Guyanese Head of State posited. “If a
crime is being committed and a soldier says he does not have orders,
that’s wrong; he should not be in the Army.” “I’ve
made it clear what I wanted…to clean out the situation in Buxton,”
President Jagdeo said. According to him, he has passed on directions to this effect to the
Minister of Home Affairs, Mr. Ronald Gajraj, the Commissioner of Police
(ag), Mr. Floyd McDonald and the Chief of Staff of the Guyana Defence
Force (GDF), Brigadier Michael Atherly. “The
Government can only give material or moral support - we do not go out with
guns to fight the situation, that’s the role of the Police…and now the
Army has gotten involved,” Mr. Jagdeo stated. The
President expressed optimism that the presence of the US Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) will shed some positive light on the situation. He
disclosed that since the escalated crime wave last year, the FBI was
approached for help, but had referred the
Guyana
Government to private investigating agencies in the
US. The FBI arrived in Guyana following the recent kidnapping of a US diplomat. |