…whistle blower in alleged assassination plot defends testimony

DURING a feisty cross-examination on Friday, Andriff Gillard, the Diamond, East Bank Demerara (EBD) resident who said he was offered $7M to assassinate President David Granger made it clear that his mental faculties are intact.
Attorneys before the Paul Slowe-led Commission of Inquiry (CoI) sought to discredit Gillard’s story but the man maintained his innocence throughout what can be described as a somewhat aggressive cross-examination. Attorney representing the interest of Police Commissioner, Seelall Persaud, Glenn Hanoman suggested that Gillard suffered from lack of attention and would do anything to be in the spot light. The man’s memory and criminal record were also scrutinised before the Commission.

Hanoman asked Gillard whether he has ever sought treatment for any psychiatric conditions to which the 32 year-old man replied in the negative. “Let me suggest to you that you have this need for attention, that you have a strong desire for attention.”
Gillard while seeking clarity on what the attorney meant, said his need for attention is only if he is sick. “Let me explain, there are psychiatric conditions that causes persons to see themselves as a victim of authority figures and they often go about making complaints and seeking attention; it is a psychiatric condition,” said Hanoman.

You think I mad
“You’re suggesting that I am mad?” asked Gillard to which Hanoman replied, “I am asking you if you have been treated for that condition?” “I was never treated for no mental condition.” Gillard questioned why he would need to be examined by a psychiatrist. “…for what? You think I mad?” asked the clearly agitated man who the attorney indicated he believes has a mental problem. “I do think so…I think something is wrong,” Hanoman said. Unbothered by the lawyer’s response, Gillard asked, “I look mad to you?” It was as a result of the apparent tiff between Hanoman and Gillard that Slowe instructed Gillard to answer questions directly posed by the lawyer.
Meanwhile, Gillard, a businessman told the Commission that he visited the Ministry of the Presidency first to talk to anyone who would listen to him, and report acts of collusion between the police and the accused Nizam Khan. He said it was while at the Ministry of the Presidency, he was told to visit the Ministry of Public Security to make his report. The man said he had no intention of going to the police because of the affiliation of the Khan brothers, Imran and Nizam, with law enforcement authorities. He disclosed in full view of Imran Khan, the brother of Nizam Khan, who is also a close friend of the police commissioner, the man accused of offering him $7M to kill the president. According to Gillard, the Khans were also associated with Head of the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), Heeralall Mackhanlall “…because I was personally sent to him by Nizam to have four police removed.”

The man spoke of what he considered to be police brutality at the hands of members of the Major Crimes Unit of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

“I was aware that I was rough up, push, pull, put on the bench [at CID] and was left there until midnight,” said Gillard who said he was looking for protection from the Ministry of the Presidency but “… I went there for help…rescue because I was tormented…I ended up back at the same police who connected to the people I reporting on.”
The clearly ruffled man said, “I know for a fact that…Nizam Khan controls the Guyana Police Force…I know this.” Gillard said his intention was to report his concerns to someone who was professional but did not agree with the suggestion that he was forced to speak to the police. “I told [Clifton] Hicken (Assistant Commissioner of Police) I didn’t want to go… I wanted the matter to be investigated thoroughly,” said the EBD resident, who noted that ordinarily he would not have gone to CID as ranks of the Department frequent Nizam Khan’s snackette.

It was suggested that it was after speaking with his lawyer, whose identity he said could only be revealed in camera, that he decided to make the complaint. “You are saying I put it together and I can’t accept that,” remarked Gillard. He accepted that he did an interview with Travis Chase, a television journalist after making a report to CID, where he was “roughed up” and “disrespected”. “I had to go somewhere else,” he declared.
“Tell me something, this Nizam Khan, you make him out to be a wicked chap…he was involved in your mind, in getting you put out of the house you were in?” asked Hanoman. Gillard was ordered to vacate a Diamond, EBD house by the court after the owner of the property passed away. The matter was taken before the court by the deceased son, Stephen Persaud.

“When I went to the court, the claim was that I failed to pay rent in May and June, or June and July, for a property in Diamond I had a business on…” something he denied as he had receipts to prove he had paid. After skirting around, the man said he believes Nizam Khan was behind his eviction from the property. He said he was not upset but was baffled to know that “Ian Chang issued the letter…and to know that I was paying my rent on time…”
“I told Nizam, ‘your fingerprint all over this…how could you do this to me, this is my livelihood’…and he said to what happen to you after now, you have to go through it, you are a stupid black man and if you had killed the president or organised the killing of the president, nobody would not have removed you from the property,” Gillard recounted. He then denied a suggestion by Hanoman that he is known to be a killer. “You ever told Nizam that you is a man that would kill?” asked the attorney to whom Gillard responded, “Nizam knows I am a planner…for events and parties.” His response caused Hanoman to ask why he was approached to assassinate the President. You got to ask him that,” the man retorted.
Gillard who reported the matter to the police on March 29, this year, some 21 months after he was allegedly offered the $7M, told the Commission that he had asked Nizam Khan to borrow $6M to put with an additional $6M he had, to purchase a property.
However, on Friday he said he is unsure of how much money he had to purchase the property, while noting that the money was not kept in a bank account but at his home. “I do not keep bank accounts sir…I had some cash but I can’t remember the amount,” Gillard explained while adding that having a bank account causes too much “run around.”