– for Bourda Market vendors
WHILE some Bourda Market vendors have moved to arrange for their own security following the recent brutal murder of a vendor,Town Clerk Royston King has said that the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) cannot encourage nor support such a move.
Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle on Thursday, he said there is no provision for private security forces to enforce compliance to city by-laws, and that the Act is very clear with respect to the agencies responsible for doing so.
King said the City Constabulary and the Guyana Police Force (GPF) are the agencies responsible for enforcing the laws. While acknowledging that the constabulary is under-resourced, he said this does not give anyone the right to move ahead with their own plans.
“Private security firms have the authority to protect private property,” King said. “The City Council will not allow private security guards to patrol its markets and will not allow the private firms to do the work of the constabulary.”
He said the way to go is to put all city streets and municipal markets under watch by installing security cameras.
Earlier this month, well-known cheese vendor Troy Ramalho was murdered by bandits during a robbery.
Some of the vendors in that vicinity have formed themselves into a group and have even visited the M&CC to make known their desire to work along with the constabulary.
The vendors related to City Mayor Patricia Chase-Green that the shooting was a “very scary” experience for them, and that they wished to establish their own policing group, so as to ensure regular patrols around the market.
Councillor Bishram Kuppen informed councillors that he was aware that the vendors have hired three armed security guards, because they said they have no confidence in the City Constabulary; but Chase-Green responded by saying that the team which visited her had said nothing about confidence, and merely referred to the fact that there were inadequate officers on the ground.
The area the vendors want to overlook is between Alexander and Bourda Streets.
Chief Constable Andrew Foo said that following the shooting incident, plainclothes officers are now on duty at the market.
Meanwhile, a 34-year-old taxi driver of Eccles, East Bank Demerara, has admitted under interrogation to shuttling the three men who were responsible for the murder of the market vendor.
Ramalho, of Lot 11 North Road, Lacytown, Georgetown, was shot around 23:00hrs on August 15, 2018, after he resisted the three men who were robbing him.
The 45-year-old man, who was well known for selling cheese and eggs in front of ‘Rambarrans’ on Robb Street, in close proximity to Bourda Street, was doing what he had been doing for over two decades, when the three bandits, one armed with a gun, ambushed him.
Reports indicate that the police, acting on intelligence, arrested the taxi driver in Buxton, East Coast Demerara. He reportedly told the police he picked up the men at Demico, Stabroek, Georgetown and they had asked him to drive to Robb Street, Georgetown, where they identified their victim.
