Three PNC activists and the son of a popular businessman were held for several hours by the police on Thursday as investigations into last Monday’s reign of terror at Rose Hall continued.
The three activists, Rose Hall Town Councillor Winston Hope, Lennox Allicock and Brentnol King, together with the son of the businessman were held at around 5 am on Thursday at their homes and taken to the Albion Police Station for questioning. They were released at around 10 pm on Thursday.
According to Allicock, police arrived and searched his home for arms and ammunition and then arrested him. The homes of the other three men were also searched, he said, before they were taken to the Albion Police Station.
PNC/R Leader Desmond Hoyte yesterday expressed grave concern over the arrests.
In a letter to Stabroek News which arrived too late for today’s letters pages, Hoyte said the PNC/R “sees this as the beginning of a campaign, politically directed, to target and harass PNC/R members and activists. In the course of so doing, the police have committed serious breaches of these citizens’ constitutional rights and privileges”.
A police source told Stabroek News on Thursday that the arrests were for matters unrelated to last Monday’s attack on the town by a gang of heavily armed men. Allicock denied any knowledge of the allegations, saying the others also denied the allegations made against them. The police, he said, accused Hope of harbouring strangers. The four were instructed to report to the Albion Station today by investigators.
Meanwhile former PNC member of parliament and Regional Councillor Colin Bynoe was held briefly by the police in New Amsterdam also on Thursday afternoon after disembarking the ferry. According to Bynoe, who is also a schoolteacher, the plainclothes policemen accosted him at the stelling and asked him to accompany them to the police station. Bynoe said he drove to the station where he was told that the police had received information that Phillip Bynoe - wanted on a treason charge - was on the ferry travelling in a car similar to his. Upon recognising that the man they had held was not the Bynoe, who an arrest warrant has been issued for, ranks apologised for the incident and allowed him to leave.
According to Bynoe a recent article in the Kaieteur News had made a similar mistake, referring to him as Phillip Bynoe, using his address on the Corentyne and calling for his residence to be picketed after the incident at the Office of the President on July 3. Bynoe said he could not understand how the police could make such a mistake when there were vast differences between his physique, skin tone and facial structure compared to Phillip Bynoe’s.
Meanwhile the police are continuing their investigations into last Monday’s reign of terror on the township and have been questioning several persons in the community over any sightings of strange persons within the past week. The police are also investigating a report by a Cumberland, East Canje man who claimed he was kidnapped by four armed men in a car on the Tain Public Road, Corentyne on Monday night at around 10 p.m. The man told the police that he was on the road awaiting transportation to his home when a car pulled up heading toward New Amsterdam. The driver, he said, asked him where he was going. The man said he entered the car thinking that it was going in the direction of his home. However, the driver u-turned and headed in the opposite direction towards Corriverton.
He related that on reaching Corriverton he was placed in the trunk of the car while the occupants visited a small snackette in a bushy part of the area. According to the man he later realised that he was in Dukestown, Corriverton after escaping from the trunk of the car. Unknowing to the men he made his way to the main road and subsequently reported the matter to the police.
Acting Police Commander, Malvin Glasgow told this newspaper that the police had been questioning the man and were investigating the report to ascertain its authenticity.