Berbice family dissatisfied with investigations into son’s death

…calls for thorough probe

A West Berbice, Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) family is not satisfied with the investigation by the police of their son’s drowning, and is calling for a thorough probe.
Their son, 30-yr-old Sadain Habibullah, a fisherman of Ketting Street, Cotton Tree, reportedly left shore on May 5, on a fishing expedition, with the expectation of returning within 4 to 5 days.
According to the fisherman’s father, Shamir Habibullah, they later received information that his son had drowned while at sea.
The following day, the boat returned to shore without his son. When Habibullah left for sea, he was a part of a crew of five, two of whom were brothers.
“I went by the koker there. And then when the boat came in, they come out of the boat and went straight past me. The captain didn’t tell me anything, and then another man asked them if they would not tell the boy’s father anything, and then they tell me that he fall over in the ocean and they have to go to Blairmont Police Station to make a report,” he recounted.

The father said that when they went to the Blairmont Police Station, they were told that since the incident occurred closer to the Corentyne shore, the matter would have to be handled by police in Region Six, and advised that they visit Central Police tation in New Amsterdam, which they did.

Arrangements were subsequently made for a search party to go out at sea.
The senior Habibullah said that along with the boat captain and two other persons, they were prepared to join the boats with five police officers for the search. However, they were told that only two people could have gone on the trip with the police officers.
A decision was then made for the father and the boat captain to go with the officers. However, following a request from the police officers, they dropped the other two men across the river to DeEdward. The boat crossed the Berbice River, where the boat captain also left but returned shortly after.
The father added that it was then that he was told he couldn’t go with the police search party, and has not heard anything since about that search, nor has he been contacted on the matter.
Habibullah said the family had organised several search parties and visited the sea daily in search of his son, and is questioning why it was that he was not allowed to be part of the crew searching for his missing son.
He believes that something is amiss.
The fisherman’s body was found on the foreshore along the East Coast of Demerara (ECD) on May 11.
An autopsy performed on the body on May 13, by Government Pathologist Dr Nihal Singh, gave the cause of death as drowning.