Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo has accused the Guyana Police Force of being “slow” to investigate a call on an online talk show that threatened the lives of the President and a number of Government Ministers.
The host of the online talk show, political activist Kidackie Amsterdam, has since been charged over the statements that were made by a caller on his live programme. Amsterdam has pleaded not guilty to the charge, and has been placed on bail.
But at a Freedom House press conference today, Vice President Jagdeo said he was dissatisfied with the manner in which the case is being dealt with by the police. According to him, the Police were “delinquent and slow” on the matter.
“I think the police have to address these matters seriously not because it is personal, but because if we allow this violent rhetoric to take hold of our society then it could lead to unintended consequences. And what he did was illegal, and seditious, if you look at what he says. He wants to behead the Head of State in Guyana,” the Vice President said.
It was not Amsterdam who made the comments, and the Police Force has not indicated whether efforts are being made to locate the caller who made the statements.
Mr. Jagdeo pointed out that in 2017, the then President, David Granger ordered a Commission of Inquiry (COI) into an alleged assassination plot against him.
“There was a full fledge commission of inquiry. A lot of policemen lost their jobs basically for that. Here you have on TV someone saying chop off Irfaan Ali’s head and you didn’t see the paranoia of the PPP/C Government; imagine if there was real prosecution, you would have had a commission of inquiry by now, you would have had Kadackie Amsterdam and everybody else already in jail. So, you don’t see paranoia in this government but of course the law must take its course and that’s what the police, they are doing,” he said.
The Vice President has now accused the Working People’s Alliance of being an extremist organisation. Kadackie Amsterdam is a WPA Executive.
“This is the extremism of the WPA, and the failed people who are there. So, this party has gone a far way from Walter Rodney’s vision of Guyana. They are a fringe party; nobody knows about them. They live on past glories on the Walter Rodney era and what we have are just racists there, posing as if they are representing Afro-Guyanese interest,” Jagdeo said.
Amsterdam is expected to return to Court next month for the continuation of the case.
He is expected to face additional charges soon, according to the police.
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