Ogunseye released on $100,000 bail for attempting to incite racial hostility

EXECUTIVE Member of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), Tacuma Ogunseye, was on Monday released on $100,000 bail for attempting to incite racial hostility in Guyana.

Ogunseye, 71, of Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, appeared before Magistrate Fabayo Azore at the Vigilance Magistrate’s Court and denied attempting to incite hostility or ill will on the grounds of race on March 9 at Buxton, East Coast Demerara.

The pensioner was represented by Attorney-at-law Clarence Nigel Hughes, who made an application for bail. The State was represented by Police Legal Advisor, Mandel Moore.

Magistrate Azore granted Ogunseye $100,000 bail and adjourned the matter until April 6 for report.

According to a Guyana Police Force (GPF) press release, Moore was “prepared for any challenge” by Hughes, who “unconvincingly argued that the charge is ‘bad in law’.”

“Attorney-at-law Moore immediately indicated to the court that he had pre - pared and had 11 pages of a written submission on hand to prove that Mr Hughes’s argument is wholly without merit,” the GPF said in a release.

Moore laid over his written submissions to the court and Hughes.

“The procedure followed in instituting this charge under the Racial Hostility Act is the same procedure that is followed when instituting charges under several other acts or legislation. Moreover, Mr Hughes would have made the same submission in another court. Mr Clarence Hughes used similar tactics in a previous matter whereby he argued that the charge was bad in law, and the court rejected his submission and ruled that it was without merit,” the release added.

The Guyana Chronicle had reported that during a public meeting at Buxton, Ogunseye made incendiary remarks about Guyana’s In- do-Guyanese and called for the Disciplined Services “to turn their guns on the State.”

Ogunseye, during a gathering at Buxton on the East Coast Demerara said: “I don’t understand how people complain that they are oppressed, and they are holding guns in their hands. They are the majority in the army, in the police and they say they are oppressed. And they still say our problem is our own making. Anytime we turn those guns in the right direction it is over.”

He also called for a day of “National Resistance” on June 12, 2023, the date that has been set aside for the holding of Local Government Elections (LGE).

Since the utterance of those statements, numerous persons and groups have called out and condemned the remarks as racist and inciting.

Thus far, several Opposition members have publicly condemned the remarks.

Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton is yet to distance himself from those problematic remarks.

Instead of publicly condemning Ogunseye’s incendiary remarks, the Leader of the Opposition (LOO) would only say that he did not agree with Ogunseye’s choice of words, though he noted that he supports the freedom of speech of the WPA.

The Private Sector Commission (PSC), Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), Region Three Private Sector Inc., and other groups from the business community have all issued statements condemning the remarks.

From the religious community, the Guyana Pandit’s Council, Guyana Central Arya Samaj, Guyana Inter-Religious Organisation (IRO), and the Central Islamic Organisation of Guyana have also expressed condemnation.