IT is now made public that Dexter Todd is the new Younge family lawyer. What happened to Darren Wade? When these things happen, someone has an obligation to explain to the nation.

If Mr. Wade has allowed Mr. Todd to be the lead attorney then that in itself needs an explanation. If Mr. Wade resigned, then so be it but if not, why is he no longer speaking on behalf of the family as we see Mr. Todd taking on that role?

I have always argued in these columns that Guyana has lost or destroyed the meaning of the word, “accountability.” Social actors, politicians, CEOs, NGOs, media houses have to make themselves accountable to the nation and that includes this columnist.

The destruction of the word “accountability” occurred because of the one-dimensional approach to the term by certain media houses, a number of civil society organisations, and opposition parties. All of these people see accountability residing only in the Government of Guyana.

This is sociological caricature at its worst. There are institutions unrelated to governance whose influence and power are immense. Just three examples should suffice: the Judiciary, the Media and iconic Guyanese whose words and actions have meaning in society. These people are accountable to the nation they help influence.

It is more than five years since the March 2020 election in which the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) failed to confront the five months of attempted rigging. In those five years, the GHRA has refused to offer an explanation.

Whatever the GHRA’s position was back then, it simply should defend it by offering rational reasoning. Red Thread said it was informed by the Guyanese Critic that a prominent businessman was sending someone to harm its leadership.

It turned out to be a hoax. Yet to date, Red Thread has not made itself accountable to the women of Guyana, that it says it serves, by apologising. The Stabroek News refuses to publish the names of its board of directors when as a powerful voice in society, the nation should know who they are. Let’s return to the Adriana Younge tragedy.

The opposition rejected any role for the Regional Security Service (RSS) in the investigation. It rejected the Barbadian pathologist. It wanted an American pathologist. It wants international investigators and not those from the Caribbean. But the Younge family ended up with a Caribbean choice when it selected a Trinidadian pathologist to do a second post-mortem.

After repudiating the presence of Caribbean personnel in both police investigation and post-mortem examination, it found confidence in a Trinidadian pathologist.

So, if it is alright to locate a learned Trinidadian pathologist, what was wrong with the esteemed Barbadian pathologist and the RSS? This is just one of the contradictions of the Younge tragedy and it gives rise to questions. The opposition wants either the FBI or Scotland Yard or the Canadian police to do the investigation.

The question is if a Trinidadian pathologist is competent to do another post-mortem, why are Jamaican and Trinidad forensic personnel not competent to investigate the Adriana Younge tragedy?

Why is it that the opposition and the Younge family do not feel that they have an obligation to explain these curiosities that reside in untold numbers of Guyanese?

Opposition Leader, Aubrey Norton wants the international investigators to administer lie detector test to the police and hotel management. Why not the Younge family members? He did not name them. From all that I have seen from family members speaking about the girl’s disappearance, there are questions to be put to them and a lie detector test has to be administered to them.

I offer one example. The grandmother said that she knew that Adriana went into the pool. She couldn’t find Adriana and when she asked relatives, they said, “look her there,” meaning she was standing outside the pool.

Should those relatives not be given lie detector tests too? And guess what? The investigators will do exactly that because in the mountain of emanations from the Younge family members, there are lines of questioning that the investigators will pursue.

What makes anyone think, (and it appears that Aubrey Norton is the exception), that the investigators will not question the friends of the Younge family and the family itself? That is standard police procedure.

One of the lie detector questions has to be; “did you search the pool from end to end and did you cover the bottom of the pool?”

My thinking from reading and viewing all that was said plus fumigating the rumour mill, I agree with the post-mortem results. But there must be an international investigation. My preference is for it to come from my own region – the Caribbean.

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.