Dear Editor,
IF you’re looking for a textbook example of obfuscation, then look no further than APNU’s Friday Press Release on the Mohameds’ Arrest.
One would’ve thought that, in the process of demitting the Office of Opposition Leader, Mr. Norton would’ve seen it fit to take a long-overdue, hard-line stance on said issue. Instead, what emanated was a shoddy compendium of narrative shifts, reeking of compromise.
The (naturally) unsigned Press release sought to frame the arrest of Messrs Nazar and Azruddin Mohamed as “authoritarian” with “blatant disregard for due process.”
The release insists that the issue is not of the arrest itself but rather, “how it was done.” The letter proceeds to misrepresent the relatively standard arrest of Azruddin, known for mobilising persons to create standoffs with law enforcement, as a “heavy-handed” spectacle intended to “drive fear.”
This curiously echoed Azruddin’s contemporaneous statements outside the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court: Claiming that he felt his life was in grave danger and that he would be shot, painting a scenario akin to a street-level execution.
One must genuinely examine the manner in which APNU is twisting itself to show this misplaced sense of solidarity to its newfound Oppositional victor. While, on the surface, it reads as some misplaced lofty call for political maturity it reveals itself to be woefully prevaricatory upon basic review.
The extradition proceedings serve to facilitate the Mohameds’ having their day in the U.S. and answer to an 11-count Grand Jury Indictment. How has APNU actually responded to said indictment? Another nameless, faceless Press Release urging Mr. Mohamed to vindicate himself by presenting evidence to the public.
Nothing about the indictment. Nothing about the fact that the investigation period covered more than three and a half years of the Granger Government. VP Jagdeo has firmly stated that all culpable actors, under successive administrations, must be held accountable. In contrast: Not a word from Norton on this. Why?
And nothing about the damning allegations levelled by Special Prosecutor Terrence Williams, on America’s behalf, accusing the Mohameds of financing domestic terrorism in Guyana and expressing fears of witness tampering. Nothing. Nothing at all has been said. Instead, the nature of the arrest is being decried with little else.
This makes sense when you look at Mohameds’ defence lawyers: APNU Candidates Roysdale Forde and Darren Wade, as well as Nigel Hughes, former AFC Leader, whose wife served in the Granger Cabinet within the period of said offences.
This makes sense when one revisits Darren Wade’s public statement in October, revealing that his legal representation for WIN, notwithstanding the ongoing election period, was instructed, sanctioned and approved by Congress Place and Norton himself.
If nothing else, this speaks to obsequious coordination. And APNU’s Friday release can only be seen as an attempt to distract from that coordination.
A few days ago, Norton claimed that vote bribery took place in Linden, yet he refused to divulge details. Why he waited beyond the 28-day post-declaration period to substantiate said claims in an elections petition, quite frankly, speaks for itself. Why he refused to give any iota of information further should also speak for itself. His initial calls for a recount in PPP won districts instead of strongholds like Linden, literally named after the Kabaka, where they brought second to WIN, are telling. These newfound accusations of compromise read as woeful confessions of his own.
Norton has totalled the People’s National Congress. If he genuinely wants to save face at this crucial juncture, there is one imperative and one imperative alone: To resign in shame.
Yours faithfully,
Nikhil Sankar