JOEL and Isaiah Henry were teenagers on the cusp of manhood. On Saturday,  September 5, they took a fatal decision to go to the backlands of Cotton Tree in Region Five to pick coconuts. They never returned home – at least, not the way they left, on their own feet, healthy and strong. Instead, their lifeless bodies were discovered in the bushy backlands by family and friends.

The nation is outraged and grieving: nothing justifies such brutal slaying of another human being, especially not teenagers who are helpless.
This is not the Guyana of yore, when erring children of neighbours were literally and figuratively taken by the ear to parents, who would severely chastise them.
This is a Guyana where material things seem to be valued more than lives. The police are investigating, treating this case as a priority, searching for the perpetrators and the motive for such a heinous act.

But once again politicians are exacerbating a tense situation in an already problem-plagued community, using this appalling tragedy as an impetus to creating divisions and riotous behaviour, seemingly in attempts to make the country ungovernable under a PPP/C administration.

In all of this, it is interesting to note that the PNC leaders who never once reached out with help to their supporters during this deadly COVID-19 pandemic have somehow found it convenient to offer support to those who are acting against the law and their own safety and, to the angst and inconvenience of law-abiding citizens, blocking roadways and destroying vehicles of the consequently stranded commuters.

PPP/C leaders are denouncing this monstrous act, condoling the bereaved and imploring citizens to let the police do their work undisturbed, while adjuring law enforcement to act quickly and condignly to solve this case. President Irfaan Ali has promised that every effort would be made to bring the perpetrators to justice.
The President is urging calm in the nation and has reiterated the PPP/C’s pre-election promise to work in the interest of all Guyanese.

The entire nation is bonding in denouncing this brutality that is a crime perpetrated by beasts in human form – not a politically or racially motivated act.
Persons should also take cognisance that the new administration is one that cares for all Guyanese and violence, race-baiting and destroying the infrastructure in their communities are counter-productive to their own development, well-being and progress.

There is a wave of change in the land. Peace should prevail and the tenets of the law upheld. The police force is being re-capitalised and the nation should place its trust in the GPF, because they have signalled their commitment to pursue lawbreakers and perpetrators of criminal acts with renewed vigour.
The grieving parents said: “This is not about race or religion or political things. I am talking on my own behalf; this is not about all these things, but this is for justice for my son’s innocent life.

“I am not political… Irfaan Ali if you hear this I ask you please to help us to find justice for my son and I know you’re a Muslim man and believe in Allah and you will do something,” he appealed.

AG Anil Nandlall has also expressed what all Guyanese feel today: “I join with His Excellency President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Joseph Harmon and indeed, every right-thinking member of our society, in condemning the brutal slaying of Joel Henry and Isaiah Henry in the backlands of Cotton Tree, West Coast Berbice.

“To their parents and grieving relatives, I offer my deepest condolences. To the villagers of the deceased and indeed all those who are enraged by this horrible tragedy and justifiably so, I appreciate your pain and anguish.”

From all indications the Guyana Police Force (GPF) is according this investigation its highest priority and the investigations are ongoing. We must allow these investigations to conclude and for the legal process to take its natural course.