Last Updated on Saturday, 3 May 2025, 12:23 by Writer
The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) on Thursday called on the government to cease exercising ministerial control over the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and instead establish a civilian oversight mechanism.
“Guyana urgently needs to operationalise accountability to these multiple audiences by the creation of a Civilian Oversight Board to replace monolithic Ministerial control,” the GHRA added.
Such a system, the association said, would allow for the police force to be monitored by multiple mechanisms such as parliament, the judiciary, media, and complaints boards.
The GHRA reminded that similar recommendations had been made by innumerable commissions of inquiry.
It said President Irfaan Ali’s assurance that all necessary resources are being made available to the GPF to get to the bottom of the death of 11-year-old Adriana Younge is “weak and unconvincing”.
Instead, the association said a more realistic response to the growing public unrest over policing in Guyana should be the appointment of a Police Commissioner in keeping with Guyana’s Constitution and restore the name to Guyana Police Service – “quietly discarded in recent years”.
The call for a Civilian Oversight Board was made even as Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo and Attorney-at-Law Darren Wade, who is representing the family of Younge – whose body was found in a hotel pool at Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo– issued separate calls for the GPF to release video recordings to prove that the girl was seen entering a vehicle on Wednesday.
“If they (the police) have that statement…and they put it in a statement here, they should immediately release the footage. I don’t know why there is a delay in releasing this footage because this is very inconsistent with the entire story…We want to see it as a country and the family would want to see that too. How, after this young lady left did her body return to the pool? Something is wrong and we have to get to the bottom of this and we’re not going to rest until that happens,” Mr Jagdeo told his weekly news conference.
“I am instructed to make the following demand that the Guyana Police Force immediately release the video footage they claim to possess, allegedly showing the deceased leaving the hotel,” Mr Wade said.
Police had issued a statement on Wednesday saying that, “the Command Centre in Regional Division #3 was contacted and viewed footage showed that Adriana entered a Red and Black Raum motor car bearing registration number PSS 4684 which drove off in an eastern direction heading towards Vreed-en-Hoop.”
After incessant calls for the Double Day Hotel to be searched a third time, the girl’s body was found in the hotel’s pool.
That almost immediately further incensed the girl’s parents, family members, relatives, and sympathisers.
The hotel and a nearby building that is also owned by the hotelier were set alight.
Looters also carted off items from the hotel.
A Barbados-based international pathologist was expected in Guyana Thursday afternoon to conduct an autopsy to determine the cause of Younge’s death.
Despite the outrage, the GPF did not unambiguously withdraw Wednesday’s now controversial statement but said certain aspects were wrong without specifying which were.
“Following preliminary investigations, it has been determined that certain details contained in the initial statement circulated were inaccurate. As such, the Force is currently reviewing the internal communication processes that led to the release of that statement,” the GPF said.
That law enforcement agency said a “comprehensive investigation” will be carried out to determine every action taken by the police.
“The circumstances under which inaccurate information was disseminated, including what led to such information, will also be thoroughly examined,” police added.
The force also said that Divisional Commander and all ranks involved in the preparation and dissemination of the initial report would be interviewed, and “appropriate actions will be taken to prevent future occurrences of this nature.”
Attorney-at-Law Wade said he was also instructed to reject the proposal made by the President to have the Commissioner of Police assemble a special team to lead the investigation into every circumstance surrounding the death of the child.
Instead, he said the family wants an international probe into the circumstances surrounding the girl’s demise, and the family be permitted to have an international pathologist.
The Police Force was also called to publicly disclose the standard operating procedures that were followed after the incident was reported.
Opposition Leader, Aubrey Norton, who visited the scene on Thursday, attributed the mayhem to government control of the police force.
“What, in essence, you’re seeing is a situation in which the people know that the Guyana Police Force is compromised. They cannot enforce law in the way that they should and so people now believe they can commit crimes and get away with it and it is unfortunate that this happened to a child,” he said.
Leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Nigel Hughes on Thursday called for the immediate removal of Police Commissioner, Clifton Hicken, Region Three (West Demerara-Essequibo Islands) Commander, Khalid Mandall and Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn.
The Alliance For Change (AFC) is calling for the immediate removal of the Commissioner of Police, the Commander of Region 3 and an independent investigation into the disturbing events surrounding the disappearance and tragic death of 11-year-old Andrianna Younge.
“If the police statement is confirmed, then it would seem that, at the highest level, they were part of a conspiracy – or at the lowest, grossly incompetent. This was a crime scene yesterday, which means they had control of the location through the night. The body could not magically appear in broad daylight. The Police Force has now established a pattern of issuing misleading information to the public. We must begin with the removal of the Commissioner of Police and escalate our call to include the Minister of Home Affairs if accountability is not forthcoming,” AFC Leader Nigel Hughes was quoted as saying in an AFC statement.
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