Chairman of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Cathy Hughes believes the move by the Guyana Police Force to arrest the Chairman of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), Tacuma Ogunseye over statements he made at a political meeting, marks another sad day in the history of Guyana.

While staying clear of addressing the controversial statements made by Mr Ogunseye on the basis that the party has not deliberated on the matter, MP Hughes said by arresting the WPA Chairman, the Police Force has in effect restricted his personal liberty.

The situation, she said, is regrettable, and is an indication that the Government is prepared to shut down any dissenting view.  

“We generally regret that the political landscape that we see that exists today [that] is focused primarily on the government side of shutting down any kind of criticisms and this can be from individuals and organizations. The whole sense that persons are not allowed to criticize the actions of the government is a worrying one,” the AFC Chairman said.

MP Hughes said during the course of Guyana’s political history, the country has seen extreme cases of persons losing their lives for presenting a different perspective on the governance model of the government.

“And even on a very basic level, you have the few members of civil society, and civil society in every other part of the world are encouraged to present their views and their thoughts because there is no one way, there is no one group of people that can claim to know what is best for this country, and therefore we should have a landscape where members of civil society should be allowed to question and to criticise and not to be publicly assaulted in the manner we have seen,” the AFC Chair explained.

Mr Ogunseye was taken into custody earlier today after he turned himself over to law enforcement. He was wanted in connection with several offences including an attempt to excite hostility on the grounds of race.

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