Investigators want to ‘peep’ former PPP ministers’ bank accounts- Rohee

Last Updated on Monday, 18 July 2016, 13:13 by Denis Chabrol

by Gary Eleazar

Warrants have been solicited from the High Court to gain access to the bank accounts of former Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) Ministers and to carry out searches at their respective places of residence.

At least this is according to General Secretary of the PPP, Clement Rohee, who on Monday when questioned by Demerara Waves as to the identities of the ex Ministers, said he was not in a position to do so, since the warrants had not been executed as yet.

Roheee was at the time lamenting, “the present day situation with the establishment of the politically anti-PPP inclined SARU (State Asset Recovery Unity), the use of SOCU (Special Organised Crime Unit) for political witch-hunting, the use of the Guyana Police Force to harass and arrest activists of the PPP, and the use of the Criminal Justice System to delay and thus deny justice to the electors’ of the PPP vis-à-vis the 2015 Elections Petition.”

According to Rohee, the PPP has noted the persistent threats by Clive Thomas, the Head of SARU to PPP leaders and former government and State functionaries.  Rohee reminded that SARU has no locus standi within the meaning of the Constitution of the Republic nor the laws of Guyana and that “any attempt to use SARU to illegally harm the legitimate economic  and financial interests of any PPP/C leader and/or former government functionary on the basis of wild, unsubstantiated and politically motivated allegations of corruption will be stoutly and resolutely rebuffed by the Party.”

Speaking at his party’s weekly media engagement, Rohee said with the advent of the APNU+AFC to office Guyana  is gradually evolving into a police state where justice has become one-sided, “an urban middle-class bureaucratic elite runs the show, accountability and transparency in government is a mockery, the Guyana Police Force is gradually being transformed into an appendage of the military, surveillance of persons of interest (POI’s) is rampant, privacy is constantly being invaded and eroded and the law is little more than a tool for the Granger administration to browbeat Guyanese into compliance.”

The situation, he said, is reminiscent of the once dreaded ‘PNC police state’ responsible for the hounding down, jailing and killing of political opponents.

He insists that attempts by the administration to harass, intimidate or resort to trumped up charges against PPP leaders will not succeed. “The PPP has the resilience and the experience to ensure that this does not happen,” Rohee said.

The PPP General Secretary also used the occasion to lament what he called “the growing militarization of the State and Government apparatus in Guyana” a tendency increasingly manifesting itself under the present administration.

According to Rohee, the David Granger administration has a penchant for placing retired and serving military officers in government agencies and departments and to head Commissions of Inquiry into one incident after another. He surmises that the administration’s pro-militaristic approach demonstrates its distrust for civilians qualified to perform such functions in contradistinction to military personnel.

He was adamant “once a soldier, always a soldier” and as such the notion of being retired does not make any of these Guyana Defence Force personnel, a civilian.