Gajraj, police mandated to probe Stabroek News March 25, 2000 The Minister of Home Affairs and the police have been asked by President Bharrat Jagdeo to look into the allegations contained in a tape reportedly made by Andrew Douglas linking a number of government ministers and police officers to the slain armed robber, Linden London. A report based on the allegations has been published on the Caribbean News Agency (CANA) wire service. The President is appealing to members of the public with information about the matters being probed to contact the police. President Jagdeo made this disclosure yesterday at a press conference he hosted at the Office of the President, explaining that he had made the request to ascertain whether there was any truth in the allegations "because this seems to be a ghost statement". Douglas, allegedly an accomplice of London, was captured in Suriname and returned to Guyana and is now before the court on a number of charges of armed robberies including the daring mid-morning robbery of an America Street cambio and an early morning heist at the National Insurance Scheme's Brickdam headquarters. The President said that what the government was very concerned about was the irresponsibility of CANA in publishing a report without seeking to determine whether the allegations therein were true or not. "Shouldn't CANA be concerned with the truth?" He noted that the allegations were made by "someone who is a charged criminal" and that was the reason for the strong statement by the government in which it has demanded an apology from CANA. Information Minister, Moses Nagamootoo, who chaired the conference disclosed that he had spoken to CANA editor, Trevor Yearwood, who had told him that the news agency would review its decision to circulate the report. He said too that he expected that CANA would act in a way which matched the government's concern. The tape recording makes a number of allegations and gives details of where and by whom Douglas and London were accommodated, provides dates and particulars of face-to-face encounters, payment of money and telephone contacts and how he and London walked out of the Camp Street prison, allegedly facilitated by high government functionaries.