Region Eight Chairman joins call for increased security
REGIONAL Chairman of Region Eight (Potaro/Siparuni), Mr. Senor Bell has joined a call for increased security in Mahdia and its environs, following the shoot-out between miners and bandits Sunday night, which left two men dead.
He said, perhaps, a Guyana Defence Force (GDF) base in the area would relieve the situation, that seems to be getting out of hand, posed by well armed criminals in the Potaro Sub-Region.
Bell told the Guyana Chronicle that a major contributory factor to the growing lawlessness is the paucity of a security presence.
He said the Police Station at Mahdia is the only security post within the 3,400 square miles of the Potaro Sub-Region which is teeming with gold mining activity.
“Lots of gold and money are virtual magnets for criminal elements and they are ganging up here, all well armed,” Bell noted.
He said, due to the heightened vigilance and cooperation with the Police, by Mahdia residents, the situation is not as dire.
“It is difficult for bandits to get away with anything here. But the outlying areas, with little or no security presence, is another matter,” Bell contended.
He said Mousie Landing, 30 miles East of Mahdia, near Konawaruk, was the scene of the shooting between miners and bandits, when the latter attempted to rob some of the former on their way back to camp after looking at the Brazil/Ivory Coast World Cup football match.
That exchange of gunfire, believed to have been executed with illegal weapons, took the lives of dredge owner Devon Thomas called ‘Tall Boy’ of Mainstay, Essequibo Coast and bandit Ossie Bourne, of Block 22, Wismar Linden.
Recently Troy Hanover alias ‘Baccoo’ and ‘Shine Rice’, of Lot 114 Meadow Brook Gardens in Georgetown was brutally murdered during an argument with another man there.
The proprietrix of the shop at Mousie Landing, where the man was staying, left the place to make a report to Mahdia Police Station and, when she returned, found that her property had been razed to ground by arsonists.
Bell said, before that, a Brazilian was shot by suspected bandits, also at Mousie Landing.
“I feel there is a strong need for a military base in this Sub-Region, to beef up security for miners and other law abiding citizens,” he reiterated.
“The situation is rapidly becoming untenable,” Bell said.