Pres Granger describes Jagdeo’s tenure as “decade of death”

─no Guyanese wants a reoccurrence

DPI, Guyana, Monday, June 29, 2020

His Excellency David Granger has described the tenure of former President Bharrat Jagdeo as the “decade of death in Guyana.”

The current General Secretary of the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP), Bharrat Jagdeo served as President of Guyana from 2000 to 2012. During that period President Granger noted there were close to 1,500 murders.

The Head of State was at the time a guest on Benschop Radio 107.1FM on Monday. He said Mr. Jagdeo had left a scar on Guyana that will never be forgotten.

“Any visitor going to Bartica will see a huge monument, any visitor going through Eve Leary will see another monument, any visitor in Buxton will see a monument. These are all monuments to Bharrat Jagdeo’s 12 years in office when he had these 1,481 murders,” President Granger highlighted.

The President observed that is peculiar that Jagdeo would claim to have had crime under control during his tenure especially when former Minister of Agriculture Satyadeow Sawh was murdered during that period.

He recalled it was “the worse period of murder of the post-election history of Guyana and you have to ask him why if he knows all these things, why didn’t he even have a commission of inquiry, not even a coroner’s inquest. This was a cabinet Minister… people must ask Mr. Jagdeo if he feels he can take control of Guyana’s security.”

During Jagdeo’s tenure as President, the Phantom and Death squads went unchecked claiming the lives of many innocent people, including extra-judicial killings. The United States in July 2010 had called for an investigation into the various death squads.

Under the PPP in 2011; serious crimes committed numbered 3,823, in 2012 there were 3,760 with 2013 recording the highest with 4,204.

However, under the APNU+AFC coalition, crime plummeted to an all-time low with not a single extra-judicial killing or death squad in sight. In 2018, the Public Security Minister reported that the number of serious crimes committed was down to 2,681.

Additionally, before 2015, the country had a crime rate of 19.5 per one hundred thousand persons, now that figure stands at 15 per one hundred thousand persons, which is quite a significant decrease.

President Granger underscored what happened “between 2000 and 2010, no Guyanese would like to see a recurrence.”