Attorney General condemns WPA’s Ogunseye’s race-baiting of Afro-Guyanese dominated security forces

Last Updated on Friday, 10 March 2023, 21:55 by Denis Chabrol

Attorney General Anil Nandlall on Friday condemned Working People’s Alliance (WPA) executive member Tacuma Ogunseye for invoking the mainly Afro-Guyanese security forces to help dislodge the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) from office.

Mr Nandlall indicated that Mr Ogunseye’s utterances at a public meeting on Thursday,March 8, 2023 should be investigated for a range of offences. “This racist incendiary call for public disorder and resistance, positioned as an alternative to the democratic process of Local Government Elections lawfully due, is capable of amounting to several criminal offences, including but not limited to, sedition, seditious libel, inciting riotous behaviour and exciting racial hostility in order to create a breakdown of law and order within the State of Guyana, if not treason. Certainly, such inflammatory publications cannot be justified under the rubric of freedom of expression as guaranteed by the Constitution,” government said.

Mr Nandlall, who is also Secretary of the Defence Board, argued that  such inflammatory publications cannot be justified under the rubric of freedom of expression as guaranteed by the Constitutio, since Article 146 which guarantees such freedom, expressly excepts “…hate speeches or other expressions, in whatever form, capable of exciting hostility or ill-will against any person or class of
persons.”

The Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs said the unvarnished truth is that persons such as Tacuma Ogunseye and those of
his ilk are of a bygone era, stuck in a time warp long gone, and which have no place in modern Guyana, and indeed, in any modern democratic society.

At the same time, Mr Nandlall urged police to investigate Mr Ogunseye’s claims. “All right-thinking citizens must therefore echo their voices against such perilous rhetoric and the law enforcement agencies are obliged to take such action as they deem necessary. History has shown that when such conduct is ignored, it inspires the perpetrators with greater boldness to public detriment ” he said.

The Chairman of the Joint Services, Brigadier Godfrey Bess earlier Friday said the security forces is apolitical and abides by Guyana’s Constitution and laws.