EXECUTIVE Member of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), Tacuma Ogunseye, on Friday morning presented himself to the police after a warrant bulletin was issued for his arrest.
The 71-year-old political activist turned himself in to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) headquarters at Vlissengen Road. He was accompanied by his lawyers, Nigel Hughes and Darren Wade.

Ogunseye is facing allegations that he attempted to incite hostility or ill will on the grounds of race during a meeting at Buxton, East Coast of Demerara (ECD), on March 9, 2023.
Ogunseye told the media outside the CID headquarters: “The WPA see ourselves as defending the dignity of our country and defending the legacy of Walter Rodney and regardless of what they throw at me I am prepared to fight back.”

At a public meeting, Ogunseye made incendiary remarks about Guyana’s Indo-Guyanese and called for the Disciplined Services “to turn their guns on the State.”
He also called for a day of “National Resistance” on Local Government Elections (LGE), which is scheduled for June 12, 2023.

Recently, Ogunseye said he would plead guilty to treason if he were charged.
“When we look at the line-up of charges they have been uttering, treason seems to be the most severe of the threats.”

“WPA publicly resolved once they come with treason charges, we will not treat it as a legal matter, we will see it as a political matter and I would go to court and plead guilty with an explanation. That is our attitude to charges,” Ogunseye said.

There has been widespread condemnation of his remarks, which the WPA said they will not apologise for.

Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, SC., also condemned Ogunseye for his controversial remarks that could incite civil disobedience in Guyana.

“Tacuma Ogunseye went to Buxton Line-top and made one of the most racially provocative, seditious, and riotous speeches; basically, calling for ethnic violence, calling on the armed forces to turn their guns against the government and those who do not look like them, calling for resistance, calling essentially for the overthrow of a democratically elected government. [Such] statements have led to civil war in countries. Statements of this type have led to genocide,” Nandlall said during a recent airing of his online show “Issues in the News.”