GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – One of the lawyers representing the executive member of the opposition Working People’s Alliance (WPA), Tacuma Ogunseye, who surrendered to Police on Friday, said his client would most likely be charged with breaching Guyana’s Racial Hostility Act.
Attorney Nigel Hughes, one of two lawyers that accompanied Ogunseye to the Police after they had issued a wanted bulletin for him, said he expects his 71-year-old client to remain in custody for 72 hours.
He said he had advised his client to maintain his silence now that the matter is under investigation by the Police.
He said offenses under the Racial Hostility Act are bailable and awaiting the particulars of the charge.
“There are one or two options – one is, they detain him and keep him for the full 72 hours until Monday and then file the charges, and the other option is, they already have the charges prepared, and we go from there to the court. Those, for me, are the two possibilities,” he told reporters.
“We know the history of the Guyana Police Force does indicate that they will not grant him bail. The question of bail in the Magistrates’ Court is another matter that is also subject to what charges are filed. The only charge which is not bailable would-be treason. The rest all bailable offenses,” Hugh said.
The Police had claimed in the wanted bulletin on Thursday that Ogunseye is wanted for several serious offenses, including attempting to excite hostility or ill-will on the grounds of race, contrary to section three of the Racial Hostility Act.
The Police said the incident occurred on March 9 at Buxton Public Road, East Coast Demerara.
Ogunseye had, during the public meeting, made several claims about the ruling People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) using the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) in the past to “execute” persons of African descent. He further stated that treating people in this ethnic group is unjust and must be acted upon as early as possible.
“The first objective is to get the African team in a state of battle readiness… the Afro-Guyanese police and soldiers… would stand with Afro-Guyanese in resisting mainly Indo-Guyanese supporting the PPP/C,” he had said.
On Thursday, WPA executive member Dr. David Hinds told a news conference that the PPP/C general secretary, Vice-President Bharrat Jagdeo, and Attorney General Anil Nandlall were influencing police action against Ogunseye.
“We intend to make the charges against Ogunseye a test of whether this government is a democratic government committed to all the tenets of democracy or is it a government that is prepared to govern by fear by muzzling those who come out in the open space and speak and trying to bully the opposition,” he said.
Nandall had called for a full investigation into Ogunseye’s statement, noting that it amounts to several criminal offenses, including but not limited to sedition, seditious libel, inciting riotous behavior, and exciting racial hostility to creating a breakdown of law and order within the State of Guyana.
Before surrendering to Police, Ogunseye said the ruling party feared his utterances that Afro-Guyanese needed to defend themselves against racial discrimination.
“The government is upset and afraid of the WPA and my call for an African uprising on June 12 and Guyanese resistance,” he said, accusing the government also of holding the celebrations of “their fraudulent local government elections” on the same date the WPA leader, Dr. Waler Rodney, was assassinated.
Rodney was killed on June 13, 1980. the local government elections will be held on June 12 this year.
Ogunseye said his struggle was for all Guyanese. “This struggle is a struggle for the African dignity and the dignity of working people of all races,” he said, adding, “We in the WPA see ourselves as defending the dignity of the country and defending the legacy of Walter Rodney, and regardless what it is, I’m prepared to fight back,”
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