FORMER People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Parliamentarian, James Bond, has lambasted social media commentator Rickford Burke for his ignorance of a topic he has been utilising to score political points.
Although Burke skipped from one topic to the next in an attempt to dismiss the guest of his usual social media programme, Bond gave him a tongue lashing for spewing spurious claims.

The topic in question was related to alleged extra-judicial killings, which Burke sought to blame the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) for.
Bond, however, challenged Burke on his accusations and told him to speak from a position of knowledge not ignorance.

Bond told Burke: “You are speaking profoundly on an issue in [SIC] which have no knowledge of.”
The extra-judicial killings and other crimes have been constantly politicised by the opposition.
However, despite former President David Granger’s 2018 promise to launch a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the early 2000s crime wave, it was never fulfilled.
Granger had pledged to investigate the “troubled period” from 2002 to 2009, which his administration claimed saw 1,431 murders. Despite this commitment, the CoI never materialised.

Further, a 2019 investigative report by the Stabroek News, debunked the opposition’s claims of indiscriminate killings during the crime wave.
In November 2019, the 32-page findings of an investigative report by the independently–run Stabroek News, exposed the falsehoods being peddled by the PNCR-led APNU+AFC coalition about the crime wave, and dismantled the notion that young Afro-Guyanese men were killed indiscriminately.

The Stabroek News’ investigative report pointed out that some 420 persons were killed between February 2002 and September 2006, 151 murdered by bandits, 30 security officers were killed, and 239 were killed during confrontations with the police and in unexplained circumstances. It added that the drug trade was a major part of the period in question.

On December 3, 2021, the Guyana Police Force had issued a wanted bulletin for Burke, citing offences under various acts, including the Racial Hostility Act, Cyber Crime Act, and Criminal Law Offences Act.
Subsequently, on September 29, 2022, another wanted bulletin was issued in connection with Conspiracy to Commit a Felony under the Criminal Law (Offences) Act, Chapter 8:01.