In a public rebuke of the judiciary, Aubrey Norton, Leader of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) and Chairman of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), took aim at Guyana’s acting Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire on Friday (April 25, 2025), criticising her rulings in a series of cases involving the country’s Top Cop.

At a PNCR news conference, Norton denounced the appointment of Clifton Hicken as Commissioner of Police and faulted the Chief Justice for decisions that he said consistently favoured the government.

“We had challenged his appointment of him having been acting, not as the substantive position, we had challenged that…the Chief Justice, in her normal style, in recent times, ruled in favour of the government,” Norton said.

The controversy began in August 2022, when George-Wiltshire upheld President Irfaan Ali’s appointment of Hicken to act as Commissioner of Police. Opposition Chief Whip Christopher Jones had filed a constitutional challenge claiming the appointment was unlawful because it lacked the constitutionally required “meaningful consultations” with the Opposition Leader. At the time, the office of Opposition Leader was vacant. The Chief Justice ruled that in the absence of an Opposition Leader, the President could not be faulted for proceeding with the appointment.

A second legal challenge followed in August 2023, this time contesting the extension of Hicken’s acting tenure after he reached the official retirement age. PNCR activist Carol Joseph argued that while the Constitution allows the President to extend the tenure of a substantive Commissioner of Police, no such provision existed for an acting appointee. On February 6, 2024, George-Wiltshire dismissed the case, finding that constitutional provisions applied equally to both acting and substantive commissioners. She held that “the framers of the Constitution envisioned that if there is not a substantive Commissioner of Police, that the statutory provisions that are applicable to a substantive Commissioner of Police would also apply to an acting Commissioner of Police.”

Despite these rulings, the opposition signalled its intent to continue its legal battle. In August 2023, attorney Roysdale Forde, SC, who represented Jones, described the Chief Justice’s decision as “too grave to be left standing” and confirmed plans to appeal.

On December 19, 2024, when Hicken was formally sworn in as Guyana’s Commissioner of Police after acting in the role since 2022. He took the Oath of Office before President Ali, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Guyana.