Dear Editor,

PLEASE permit me to respond to a letter to the editor which was published in the Kaieteur News on May 20, 2018 under the caption “Why is Motie Dookie being targeted?”
Reference was made about a series of articles I wrote in relation to Deputy Superintendent Motie Dookie, who once served as the head of the SWAT Unit and was the subject of an alleged whisky smuggling scandal. The author of that letter boldly called for me to write factual articles when in the same letter, she made a number of loose statements.

It is always unfortunate when journalists are starved for information when trying to report on certain issues but the moment we are able to break that barrier and gather the facts to do follow-up reports, we are accused of either targeting people or reporting inaccurately among other things. The conduct of Mr Dookie while he was a serving member of the Guyana Police Force was the subject of internal scrutiny on numerous occasions and a simple check of his personal file will confirm this. But there is something that Priya Persaud stated in her letter that seemed to have missed the eyes of the public, the Guyana Police Force and particularly its detectives.

“Did it occur to anyone that Mr. Withrite placed the nation at a great risk? The revolver which was stolen is currently being used for the numerous robberies that are currently taking place,” Priya stated in her letter. She was at the time making reference to the alleged robbery committed on former head of the SWAT Unit Lonsdale Withrite, who was subsequently removed from his post that saw Dookie take over the supervision of the unit. It is evident that Priya Persaud knows who reportedly robbed Withrite, the real motive behind his being reportedly robbed, the exact robberies that are being perpetrated against citizens with the very gun that was misplaced during that alleged robbery committed on Withrite and where the next robbery using that very firearm would take place.

It raises a serious question as to what really happened on the night Withrite was reportedly robbed. Are we to believe that it was a well-orchestrated plan designed to see a particular outcome? Before Priya seeks to lecture me on how to do the job I am qualified to do, she should seek to work along with the police in pointing them to the criminals whom she obviously knows and, who are using the service revolver which was issued to Lonsdale Withrite and which is “currently being used for the numerous robberies that are currently taking place”.

I have done countless reports and follow-up reports on a number of issues and officers within the Guyana Police Force since my main area of focus is crime and security, and I never saw Priya Persaud pen a line about the subjects of those articles being targeted or calling for me to write “factual articles”

I am the journalist who broke the stories with the Withrite alleged robbery, the corporal who was busted smuggling an AK-47 out of Eve Leary, the ASP who reportedly assaulted ranks at the TSU, the deputy commander who slapped a constable, the commander who was removed from his division amidst claims of inappropriate behaviour with junior ranks, the disappearance of narcotics from the office of a senior rank and so many others, all of which I did numerous follow-up stories on but Priya Persaud never considered my work then to be lacking facts or persons being targeted. But now with Mr. Dookie, she finds a voice.

I guess every cow feels for its own. I have a job to do and I will continue doing so without fear, favour or ill-will, wherever the story leads, I WILL FOLLOW.

Regards
Leroy Smith
Freelance Crime/ Security Journalist