AFC Leader urges Lindeners to reject police, RSS investigation into killings; demands GY$200 million “gesture”

Last Updated on Monday, 21 April 2025, 17:40 by Writer

Leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Nigel Hughes on Sunday called on Lindeners to disregard investigations by the Guyana Police Force and the Caribbean Regional Security System (RSS) into two fatal police shootings earlier this month in the bauxite mining town.

“The Guyana Police Force cannot investigate these murders. They can’t. Under no circumstances we will accept the RSS. The RSS failed this country with the Henry boys,” he said about their probe of the brutal slaying of 16-year-old Isaiah Henry and his 18-year-old cousin, Joel Henry, in September 2020.

Two men were ordered to stand trial for those slayings.

Mr Hughes issued the calls while speaking at the funeral of 21-year-old Ronaldo Peters, who was shot on April 7 by a policeman during efforts to arrest him for a probe that he allegedly raped a child under 16 years old.

Thirty-two-year-old Keon ‘Dan’ Fogenay was shot dead on April 8, allegedly by police during a protest by Lindeners against Peters’ killing.

The AFC Leader advised residents of Linden not to accept any “peace offering” that the police and RSS would probe Peters’ and Fogenay’s killings.

“They are both incapable,” said Mr Hughes, a practising criminal and civil lawyer.

Instead, he suggested that the Guyana government resurrect and implement a Commission of Inquiry into the killing of several protesters in 2012 that called for a special mechanism to investigate the Guyana Police Force.

“If you want to pay tribute to these two sons here, do not accept a police investigation and do not accept an investigation by the RSS. You need the best forensic experts from the world to come here and they are not the Guyana Police Force and not the RSS,” he said.

Mr Hughes also called on government to provide an initial compensation of GY$100 million to each surviving family of the two men who were shot dead in Linden less than two weeks ago.

“As the first symbol of good blessings or wishes from the government if they are serious, let them give each family, as an opening gesture, a hundred million dollars because they can find the money for frivolities, they can find the money to sport, they can find the money to bring in reggae artistes and all kind of artistes,” he said.

Faced with the fact that Fogenay has left behind four children and Peters, one child, Linden Mayor Sharma Solomon said the priorities are justice for their deaths and the welfare of their offsprings. “This is where we must be responsible, as residents, as community leaders to ensure that it doesn’t end today but we pursue not only the justice but ensure that we take care of those family members,” he said.

Mr Solomon sent a clear message to the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) administration that “restraint” by residents was hinged on justice for the police killings.

PNCR Leader and Leader of the Opposition, Aubrey Norton said there is a history of Guyanese being killed by police but there is no justice.

He said while compensation is important it could not resurrect those who were slain at the hands of law enforcement agents.

Instead, he said the Guyana government needed to send a clear message to the police force that if they kill innocent civilians, they would be punished.

“What is important is for the government to say to the policemen in Guyana ‘if you murder people, you will face the law’ and the government is not doing that. Consistently, somebody is blamed and they quiet down the situation and then somebody else is killed,” he said.

He called on residents to be vigilant to ensure that “rogue policemen” are kept off the road rather than being allowed to return to the wider society.