The high-level Commission of Inquiry into the “Linden crisis” situation of last July that included disturbances, shooting deaths and destruction by arson, has concluded its public hearings and hopes to report on its findings early next year when the Commissioners reassemble again in Georgetown.
But no sooner had the conclusion of that aspect of its work was announced on Friday, and preceded with a theatrical display by attorney-at-law and chairman of the Alliance For Change, Nigel Hughes, who represented families of the trio of Lindeners shot to death during a violent demonstration on July 18,than sections of the opposition-aligned media were ready to pass judgment on the five commissioners themselves.                     
It would not have escaped public attention that the partisan reporting and commentaries offered by Kaieteur News in particular, prior to and during the hearings of the Commission, were largely consistent with the known political connections between lawyer Nigel Hughes and well-placed elements at that publication.
Following his shocking display on Thursday when he had to be reprimanded by the Commission’s chairman, Lensley Wolfe, former Chief Justice of Jamaica, for unprofessional and threatening behaviour towards a senior police officer during cross-examination, Hughes was ready on Friday to offer his own conclusion that “scientific evidence” pointed to the police in the shooting deaths of the three Lindeners.
And while those who have been carefully following reports on the hearings would be aware that Hughes’s claims were in sharp contrast to evidence offered to the Commission by members of the Guyana Police Force, as well as the failure to incriminate Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee, in relation to wild allegations about instructions given to the Force, political mischief is now being extended to undermining the integrity of the Commission itself.
Not surprisingly, therefore, and consistent with the link between sections of the media and the political opposition, the AFC in particular, while Hughes continues to throw tantrums and make threats, the Kaieteur News has already come forward with an editorial to pass judgment on what it sees as “shortcomings of the Commission itself…”
The report on the findings and conclusions of the respected Commissioners, drawn from Jamaica, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, would be anxiously awaited by the Guyanese people, irrespective of political affiliation or persuasion.
What is already known from the public hearings, according to expert evidence offered under oath, is that the shots that killed the three Lindeners during a violent confrontation, did NOT come from the guns of ranks of the Guyana Police Force.
Further, and relatedly, NO EVIDENCE was provided to implicate Home Affairs Minister Rohee in those shooting deaths.
Nevertheless, those who know, or may be familiar with the desperate political agenda of an opposition coalition of convenience, can expect more of fun and fury from the AFC and APNU as we await the Report of the Lensley Wolfe-led Commission of Inquiry.