PAMELA Kendall, the murdered cash-crop farmer of Lot 19 Number 45 Village, Corentyne, has been described by her husband Deoram Sookchand as having been the nicest person in the world.

Speaking with this publication on Saturday at his home, a grieving Sookchand said he had been living with the hard-working Kendall for the past nine years. She had been in the business of cash-crop farming and he had assisted her in that regard, in addition to doing his job of cleaning drains for the Neighbourhood Democratic Council.

The man could not say whether his wife had been killed as a result of plain robbery, or whether another motive was attached to her murder, but he stressed that the crime situation along the Corentyne Coast was getting out of control, and that the police seem very incapable of dealing with it.

He spoke of robberies having been committed within the same No. 45 Village every night, and pointed out that one night after his wife had been killed, three houses in the area were attacked by bandits. That information was not confirmed.

The man is now calling on the police to increase their presence in the area by day and night, and not only along the main road, but also along the back streets within the community. He said that many of the robberies which take place in the community are committed by persons who use the back streets as both their means of entering the homes of residents and as their getaway route.

“Our area, especially 51 Good Hope area, every night is three, four houses getting hit. Unto now, the police cannot catch the people doing these things, so the security system is very weak in this area. Up to last night, two to three houses got hit right in the area,” the man told this publication.

He recalled being beaten and robbed in the past, along with his wife, when bandits invaded their home asking for cash and gold. Asked about his next move, the very humble but by then riled-up Sookchand related that he was unsure of what his next move would be, but he did not rule out moving out of the home and going somewhere else to live, since he said his life has now been “messed up” by the bandits.

The brothers of the dead woman, who are also administrators of an estate, called for them to be issued with firearms to protect their assets, as they claim that the robberies in the communities are too many.

Last Saturday, Former Prime Minister Samuel Hinds and former PPP Parliamentarian Jafarally visited the family to offer words of comfort. That visit, however, turned out to be very controversial as Jafarally sought to blame Public Security Minister Ramjattan and President David Granger for the killing of the woman and the crime situation. The woman’s relatives then –- with voices raised to an unusual decibel — reminded the PPP members that they were in a state of mourning, and were not interested in politics or hearing who was responsible for the murder, and what the Government was not doing.

Jafarally also told the woman’s relatives that one of the 60 persons who had been pardoned by President Granger was responsible for the shooting death of a businessman on the East Coast of Demerara after his release. That bit of “news” was also shot down by the relatives, who informed him that he was deliberately misleading them, as the information was not true and he was only there to spread propaganda.

By Leroy Smith

(Photos by Delano Williams)