Linden shooting probe Nandlall blasts Hughes’s attack on Regional Security System

Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall, SC, has condemned the Leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Nigel Hughes, for “irresponsible and inflammatory” remarks he made in urging members of the public to reject the official police investigation into the recent killing of two Linden men.

The Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) of the Guyana Police Force, with support from the Regional Security System (RSS), is conducting an investigation into the alleged police killing of 21-year-old Ronaldo Peters and 32-year-old Keon Fogenay in Linden earlier this month.
The probe into the April 7 death of Peters has been completed, and the case file has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) on Wednesday for legal advice; while the investigation into Fogenay’s death, which occurred on April 8, is still ongoing.
At the funeral service held for the two men on Sunday, Hughes, an attorney-at-law, urged family members to reject police investigation into the circumstances surrounding the men’s deaths.
He said, “I say to you today, Linden: do not accept any peace offering that says that the police should investigate or that the RSS can assist. They are both incapable. And if you want to pay tribute to these two sons here, do not accept the police investigation and do not accept an investigation by the RSS.”
During his weekly programme – Issues in the News – on Tuesday evening, Nandlall criticised the AFC leader for attacking the Caribbean’s RSS mechanism.
“So, Nigel Hughes is telling the country to disregard the law enforcement agencies of Guyana [and] disregard the Regional Security System. This is a regional law enforcement agency, a Caribbean mechanism…so whom should we get to investigate these things? And on what basis is he jumping to these conclusions?” Nandlall asked.
“What evidence does Mr Hughes have to suggest that the investigation is somehow compromised?” Nandlall questioned.
With the police being fingered in the deaths of Peters and Fogenay, the Guyana Government had called in the RSS to assist local authorities with the probe. A three-member team subsequently arrived here, and is working with the OPR to conduct the investigations.
In calling for the rejection of the ongoing investigation, Hughes has claimed that the RSS cannot be accepted, and that it had failed Guyana in the past with the Henry boys’ case – something which the Attorney General has debunked.
Nandlall reminded that it was the RSS investigation and support that led to persons being charged for the murders of 16-year-old Isaiah Henry and his 19-year-old cousin Joel Henry, who were brutally murdered in September 2020.
According to the Attorney General, there is a process to be followed, and that is exactly what is being done in relation to the deaths of the two Linden men.
“In a civilized society, an investigation must be done, and that investigation requires due process to be extended to both the victims as well as the villains, and eyewitnesses are also required to be interviewed so that important and necessary bits and pieces of evidence is accumulated. There is no other process in the civilized world. And that is what the Government committed to,” Nandlall declared.
He went on to say, “Nigel Hughes is a lawyer. he knows all of this, yet he is quoted in the press as making the most reckless, irresponsible and inflammatory statements. And these are not isolated statements, these are statements that Nigel Hughes has consistently shown a proclivity for publishing.”
The Legal Affairs Minister further contended that Hughes’s posture on this and other similar types of situations demonstrates that he is “out of his depth when it comes to responsibility”.
Nandlall posited, “[Hughes] cannot be anywhere close to a government…He doesn’t have the sense of maturity, and he doesn’t have the presence of mind.”
However, Hughes responded to the AG on Wednesday by stating that he is committed to justice for the two Linden men.

“Illogical”
But, according to prominent attorney and former Member of Parliament for the People’s National Congress (PNC), James Bond, Hughes’s position is “illogical”.
“[Hughes’s comment] doesn’t sound like a logical comment; it has to be something more to it. If the investigation reveals the ranks were culpable, should that report be accepted? If the report comes back to charge them with murder, should Lindeners disregard it? Something isn’t adding up,” Bond stated during an interview with this newspaper on Tuesday.
On April 7, Peters was reportedly shot dead at Shabba Bar in Linden by a plainclothes police officer attached to the Wismar Police Station. His death sparked outrage that resulted in protests across the mining town, demanding justice.
However, during the protest the following day – which were marked by the burning of tyres and blocking of roads – police reportedly fatally shot Fogenay.
Eyewitnesses allege that Fogenay was not actively participating in the protest, but was struck while passing through the area.
President Dr Irfaan Ali has assured the families of the two men that there would be thorough investigations into both incidents.
Meanwhile, during his Tuesday programme, AG Nandlall addressed calls by Hughes for the families of the Linden men killed to be compensated. He said, “The Government is not ruling out any form of compensation, but things have to be done in a proper way, in an orderly way. You must have an investigation; there must be some findings, and then certain eventualities will flow.”
While Peters’s case file was handed over to the DPP, the GPF has said additional witnesses were expected to be interviewed on Wednesday to complete the Fogenay case file before that, too, is submitted. The RSS is also expected to submit a report containing its findings and recommendations.
In the meantime, the cops involved in the fatal shootings have been placed under close arrest, pending the outcome of the investigations.