THE Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Junior once said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”; and Shareema Azab of 1232 Diamond New Scheme, East Bank Demerara, is certainly on a quest for justice following the unjustified death of her father.

Azab’s father, fifty-four-year-old, Abdul Azab Hamied of Lot 4 Friendship, East Bank Demerara, was, on January 5, struck by a vehicle bearing the number plate PCC 9494 while crossing the road in front of his place of residence to buy bread.

The deceased man’s daughter has said the incident occurred at approximately 8:30pm on the said day. She related that, following the incident, she was made aware that her father had been involved in an accident, and had subsequently been rushed to the Diamond Diagnostic Hospital.

Upon arriving at the hospital, she disclosed, medical professionals were operating on him. “After I reach, doctors and so were operating on him, and I start feel bad, like I want to vomit, and I leave and went back home in Diamond”, the tearful woman said.

She said that upon returning to the hospital, just after 10:00pm, she was told by family members that her father had passed away.
The family then departed the hospital at just after midnight, after Lyken Funeral Parlour would have removed the body. At this point, their quest for justice began when they visited the Grove Police Station to enquire about the incident and the other persons involved.

This request was not granted, as the police withheld information about the driver, disclosing only that he was a “Negro man from Sophia”.

The following day, Azab and her family again visited the police. They took a photograph of the vehicle and gave a statement to the police officers, after which they left. A few days later they returned, and were again greeted with disappointment.

“The Wednesday I went to see them cut my father, and then he (was) buried (on) the Friday. Then we went to the police station, and the police them didn’t telling we nothing. Them said that the man on a hundred thousand (dollars) bail and they move the car the Thursday. We ask them why they move the car, and they said that some police got to investigate the car. When we ask what going to happen with the man, they tell us how it got to go through DPP and we got to go to court,” the heavy hearted woman related.

However, those promises went unfulfilled, as Azab disclosed that, up until yesterday when she visited this publication, the police had not given her family a court date. “Unto now they ain’t tell we anything…. So since then to now we ain’t know nothing”, she said.
She explained that, due to this incident, her sister who currently resides in New Jersey was forced to return home for her father’s funeral, which resulted in her losing her job.

Funeral expenses and other financial burdens were then laid on their shoulders, as no compensation was given to her family for the death of her father. This, the woman lamented, is a clear example of injustice at its peak and the lack of professionalism by the police force, whom she is convinced is refusing to act for some reason or the other.

Azab is making an appeal to not only the Guyana Police Force, but for the Guyanese populace to stand up against such injustice and demand that the rights of persons be respected, and that everyone be subjected to the law.