PRIME Minister Moses Nagamootoo has confirmed that the government will be giving the Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry (CoI) until December 15 to submit its report.A few days before the Commission was to have submitted its final report last month, the Justice for Walter Rodney Group petitioned Governance Minister Raphael Trotman for a two-week extension.

1000 SIGNATURES
That petition reportedly garnered more than 1000 signatures from students, supporters and admirers of Walter Rodney in more than 50 countries, imploring the government to allow the Commission to sit for two more weeks to properly complete its work.

The petition was handed over to Minister Trotman by rights activist, Karen deSouza on behalf of those Guyanese in London who had spearheaded the signature campaign. Similar petitions were handed over to officials at the Guyana Embassy in Washington DC., on November 13, and at the Guyana High Commission in Jamaica on the same date.

Government has, however, not authorised the CoI to reopen its inquiry to include testimonies.

THE COMMISSION
The Walter Rodney CoI was established in February 2014 under the stewardship of former President Donald Ramotar. Its three commissioners were sworn in on February 25, 2014, while its mandate has been to inquire into circumstances surrounding the June 13, 1980 death, by explosion of an incendiary device in Georgetown, of the late Dr. Walter Rodney, a historian, scholar and leader of the Working Peoples Alliance (WPA) party.
The three Commissioners are: Queen’s Counsel Sir Richard Cheltenham of Barbados (Chairperson); Queen’s Counsel Jacqueline Samuels-Brown of Jamaica; and Senior Counsel Seenath Jairam of Trinidad and Tobago.

ITS WORK
The alleged 1980 assassination of the author of ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’ remains Guyana’s most traumatising political incident to date.

Reports are that approximately $400M have thus far been expended on the commission’s work. Some people are of the view that the Commission to determine how Rodney met his demise on June 13, 1980 on John Street near the Georgetown Prison has been a waste of taxpayers’ money.

The APNU faction of the APNU+AFC coalition government allegedly thinks that enough money has been expended on the commission, and that the CoI had been given enough time to carry out its work. They allegedly think that further expenditure on this CoI constitutes financial wastage. Many people have, however, countered this assertion by saying that Rodney died by misadventure when a bomb in what was purportedly a walkie-talkie exploded in his lap while he was seated in his brother (Donald)’s car.
At the time of Rodney’s death, he had allegedly been waging a civil rebellion against what had then been considered the PNC-led dictatorship of the late President Forbes Burnham.
The major partner in APNU is the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), which Rodney’s WPA has consistently maintained was the main architect behind Rodney’s death.
The device that allegedly killed Dr Rodney had been provided to him by a Sergeant Gregory Smith, reportedly then a Guyana Defence Force (GDF) electronics expert; and Rodney had allegedly been given clear instructions on how to test it near the metal fence of the Georgetown Prison.