A petition by the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) and other concerned citizens and a motion by Opposition Member of Parliament, Amanza Walton- Desir, for the National Assembly to discuss the death of 11-year-old Adriana Younge, was not allowed in the National Assembly this morning.

During today’s, Speaker Manzoor Nadir noted that the Standing Order requires that petitions must first be submitted to the Clerk of the National Assembly who will then review it and forward his recommendation to the Speaker, on whether it will be added to the Order paper or not. He said it is a process which has several layers, but the petition was only received hours before today’s sitting and could not go through that process.

“So just to reaffirm a petition was submitted to the Clerk but no submission to the Speaker for onward transmission on the order paper and this is one of the reasons why there was a delay in calling the Assembly to order,” the Speaker said.

Given that the matter did not make it on the Order paper today, MP Walton-Desir suggested that given the importance of the matter, it should be treated with some urgency.

“And respectfully I ask, Mr. Speaker, when can we as Members of Parliament, when can the Guyanese public and Human Rights Association, receive a response from this Honourable house on this matter, given that this is something of significant National importance.

But the Speaker again noted that a process must be followed.

“With respect to petitions the Standing Order is quite clear, when a petition is presented, there are three options, it could be read, circulated to members or it could be moved to go to a Special select Committee, so we await the Clerk’s review and his recommendation to us,” the Speaker noted.

The motion submitted by MP Walton-Desir calls on the Government of Guyana to initiate an immediate, independent, and thorough investigation into the operations, conduct, and leadership of the Guyana Police Force, requiring the Commissioner of Police to proceed on leave to facilitate an impartial investigation and take decisive steps to restore the integrity, professionalism, and accountability of the Force.

The Guyana Police Force is under fire over its treatment of the early report’s of the 11-year-old girl’s disappearance at the Double Day Hotel in Tuschen last Wednesday. Her body was found the following morning in the pool of the hotel, although several searches of the same pool had come up empty handed.

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