Norton calls on Linden to hold Adriana Younge solidarity protests

Last Updated on Saturday, 3 May 2025, 12:28 by Writer

Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton, Sunday night, urged Lindeners to protest in solidarity with family members and other loved ones of 11-year-old Adriana Younge, whose body was found in a pool at Double Day Hotel, Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo, last Thursday.

“I say to you in Linden and I say it loud: organise protest in solidarity with young Adriana Younge because the time has come when we must stop the lawlessness that is being practiced by the Guyana Police Force and the government,” he told the opening of Linden Town Week to mark the 55th anniversary of that municipality.

Aware that the Guyana government might accuse him of calling people to riot, Mr Nort0n maintained that “I said protest; there are various forms of protest but at this point I don’t care what they say.”

He dismissed President Irfaan Ali’s contention that Ms Younge’s death was not political. “It must be political if people are saying to the Guyana Police Force, ‘this child went in there and they didn’t come out’ and the police is doing everything to get the people to move so that the child’s body can come out. That makes it political. It is a lack of professionalism in the Guyana Police Force,” he said.

Dr Ali last week warned that authorities would not condone politically motivated persons destroying public and private properties and blocking roads.

Over the weekend, the riot squad arrested a number of persons on the West Coast Demerara after hours of protest outside the Leonora Police Station.

A fire was also lit on the West Coast Berbice Public Road over the weekend as protesters there called for justice for Adriana Younge.

The PNCR Leader accused the Guyana Police Force of engaging in a failed plot to cover up the death of the girl at the hotel. He said it appeared that the plan was to move the body to another location and accused someone else of the crime.

“In this case of the young woman, the police clearly attempted to get the people to move from the hotel so that they can cover this crime. I don’t think that is in question,” he said.

The Guyana Police Force (GPF) had issued a statement several hours after the girl was reported missing, saying that police video surveillance footage had shown her entering an identifiable car.

The GPF subsequently said that statement had contained inaccuracies and that an internal probe was launched about its issuance.

Three foreign forensic pathologists – two organised by the government and one by Younge’s family – are due to conduct an autopsy on Younge’s body.

For their part, police investigators have placed three members of the GPF under close arrest. The then Region Three Divisional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner Khalid Mandall has been transferred and sent on administrative leave to make way for the probe.

Police also said the owner and several workers of the Double Day Hotel had been questioned.