Stabroek News

The Saxacalli murders and the prison escapee

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The recent conference­s of the police force and the prison service have been shadowed by horrendous crimes and failures that one hopes there was serious introspect­ion at these gatherings and that the government will tame the hoopla about how well things are going and face the facts.

On February 15 this year, Akeem Wong, a rapist serving a 15-year sentence escaped from the Mazaruni Prison. According to the Guyana Prison Service (GPS), the escape occurred at around 7.20 am. At the time, Wong and an inmate were working in the fields in the custody of a Prison Officer. Wong then requested to defecate which the officer granted him permission to do. After around five minutes had passed, the officer checked on Wong and discovered him missing.

There was no public reporting of a sighting of Wong for some 22 days until he was placed at Saxacalli, 25 miles south of Parika, March 8 and where he was alleged to have gruesomely chopped to death David Gomes, 49, and his 75year-old mother Nellie Gomes after they had extended hospitalit­y to him. The assailant has since disappeare­d.

Escapes have become synonymous with the prison system as has unaccounta­bility. Were the heads of the police and prison service to have been held accountabl­e for the various egregious failures under their tenure the country would have experience­d a series of changes in the hierarchy over the last two decades and at the Ministry of Home Affairs. Since Wong’s escape on February 15, there has been no update from the GPS - or the police - on the search for the escapee despite the trauma that the country suffered as a result of the 2002 Camp Street prison break. Did the GPS and the Guyana Police Force (GPF) simply show disinteres­t in the search for Wong thinking that he would be found during routine checks? Or did the need to recapture him just simply fall off the radar?

It is remarkable that an escapee from the high security Mazaruni Prison has been able to evade capture for 22 days given the difficult terrain in the area and to journey to Saxacalli. How it was accomplish­ed may never be known but certainly if the GPS and GPF were on high alert for him, as they should have been, he would have been recaptured. That was not to be and Wong now stands accused of a horrific double murder.

As the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, President Irfaan Ali should require the prison service and the Home Affairs Ministry to provide an explanatio­n on what transpired from

February 15 up to March 8 and what steps are being taken to immediatel­y recapture Wong. A decision should then be made on what remedial steps should be taken to address weak security There is no guarantee that any action will be taken. The January 2024 report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Mahdia fire was scathingly critical of the acting Chief Fire Officer, Gregory Wickham but no action has been taken against him. The failure to establish accountabi­lity red lines for the leadership of the Joint Services presages more debacles. The government should take heed of this.

The murders at Saxacalli were not the only only problem for the Joint Services in recent days. Just a week ago this newspaper editoriali­sed about the inexplicab­le collapse of the case against Neil Madramooot­oo who was accused of the fatal shooting of his fiancée, Ashmin Mahadeo, a developmen­t which called into question the quality of the case led in court by the police.

Last week there was the spectacula­r disintegra­tion of yet another high-profile matter, the conspiracy case surroundin­g the flight from the Mazaruni Prison of death row prisoner Royden ‘Smallie’ Williams, perhaps the most feared person in the prison system. So audacious and timed to perfection was his escape that it no doubt required infiltrati­on of the prison security and comprising of personnel at various levels. Six persons were charged with the conspiracy including senior prison officials. On Friday, Magistrate Crystal Lambert threw the case out.

What quality of work was invested by the police in developing evidence in this very important case? Very little it would seem at a time when the county can ill-afford a climate of insecurity. Those in the GPS who are responsibl­e for building cases - particular­ly high-profile ones - and prosecutin­g them must examine what led to the failure of this one and take urgent steps to redress the shortcomin­gs.

While it is an important plank in building public confidence, one can’t but think that the police force is devoting an inordinate amount of time to community meetings rather than using intelligen­ce-led policing and boots on the ground to root out some of the crime that is arising and to maintain a higher operationa­l profile. There are clearly problems in the security sector and it behooves President Ali to address them urgently.

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