Tacuma Ogunseye, an executive member of the opposition Working People’s Alliance (WPA), surrendered to police on Friday less than 24 hours after being wanted for inciting.
Darren Wade and Nigel Hughes represented Ogunseye.
“The WPA consider ourselves as defending the dignity of our country and defending the legacy of Walter Rodney and regardless of what they throw at me I am prepared to fight back,” Ogunseye told reporters outside the Georgetown Criminal Investigation Department Headquarters (CID).
On Thursday, the police announced that Ogunseye, 71, is wanted for multiple serious offenses, including attempting to incite racial hatred under section three of the Racial Hostility Act.
Police said the incident occurred on March 9 near Buxton Public Road, East Coast Demerara.
During the public meeting, Ogunseye made various claims regarding the ruling People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) utilizing the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and Guyana Defence Force (GDF) to “execute” Africans. He added that treating this ethnic group unfairly must be addressed immediately.
“The initial objective is to get the African team in a state of battle preparation… the Afro-Guyanese police and troops… would stand with Afro-Guyanese in resisting largely Indo-Guyanese supporting the PPP/C,” he stated.
Dr. David Hinds, WPA executive member, said a Thursday news conference that PPP/C general secretary and Vice-President Bharrat Jagdeo and Attorney General Anil Nandlall were influencing police action against Ogunseye.
“We aim to make the allegations against Ogunseye a test of whether this government is a democratic government devoted to all the ideals of democracy or whether it is prepared to govern by fear by muzzling people who come out in the open space and talk and trying to bully the opposition,” he said.
Nandall asked for a complete investigation into Ogunseye’s statement, calling it sedition, seditious libel, inciting riotous behavior, and inciting racial animosity to destabilize Guyana.
