The PNC/R is guilty of making irresponsible and proactive statements against Government's efforts to tackle crime-Rohee

HOME Affairs Minister Clement Rohee yesterday slammed the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) for peddling falsehoods about the People’s Progressive Party (PPP/C) administration in its (PNCR’s) continuing efforts to gain a political niche in order to ensure its survival.
The PNCR at its press conference yesterday cited the Monica Reece case as it seeks to make the connection that the Administration has links to the criminal under-world.
Minister Rohee, in an invited comment on the PNCR statement, stated that to say that the administration has prevented any investigation into the Monica Reece case is a blatant falsehood. Reece was murdered and her body was dumped on Main Street in 1993.
He said the then Commissioner of Police had never made any claims about being prevented from investigating the case by the administration. Minister Rohee said until the then Commissioner reveals that he or officers under his command were prevented from investigating the Reece case then, it is clear that the opposition party’s statements have no credibility.
The Minister called on the opposition party to support its claim by producing evidence that the drug-underworld and other criminal enterprises are strengthening their hold on law enforcement agencies in Guyana, rendering them impotent to deal with drug-related crimes.
Minister Rohee said the PNCR should also explain “how is it that the law enforcement has been able to make such significant breakthroughs in this country...and how they managed to capture and exterminate many of the leaders of gangs that were terrorizing this country.”
He noted that if the PNCR’s allegations were indeed true, then citizens of this country would not be living in the relative tranquility that it is experiencing right now.
The Minister debunked the statement that the Jagdeo administration has resorted to the use of drug lords and phantom killers. “This is clearly a political statement without any foundation whatsoever, and it must be dealt with as such. To say that the Jagdeo administration has resorted to the use of drug-lords and killers is a figment of the PNC’s imagination; they seem to be living in a world which has no connections to Guyana,” the Minister said.
The PNCR also believes that the police are being prevented from acting ‘professionally’ during investigations of the Maria van Beek shooting. Minister Rohee disputed this, saying that so far the police have brought three suspects under scrutiny.
“They have had identification parades and as far as I am aware professional policemen around the world never cease investigations. They may go to a cold case but they never cease investigations, because a criminal may escape the clutch of the law today, but we all know from experience that eventually the law catches up with the perpetrator; so I think this rush to judgment is very unhelpful and is to be condemned for its falsehood,” he said
The PNCR said they are convinced that the Government’s approach of being complicit with crime and criminals is responsible for criminals not having to worry that they will be brought to justice.
“I would not give credence to this statement, because again it’s a political statement without any foundation. What we have in this country is the freedom of people to make statements of this type and not be brought to book to prove that they have any truth in them. The PNC is taking advantage of this…making irresponsible and proactive statements against an administration which is trying its best to rein in and uncover the criminal underworld in this country, to make its people safe,” he said.