LOO Says BPD Needs More Accountability

One person who has been very vocal about his discontentment with the way the crime situation in Belize is being dealt with is Leader of the Opposition, Moses “Shyne” Barrow. Barrow has had the Belize Police Department under a microscope for quite some time now and has highlighted the shortfalls when it comes to citizen security due to crooked cops within the force. During an interview with Love News, Opposition Leader says that the police department must be held accountable for the charges against Elmer Nah. 

Moses Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition: “Following up on the interviews that I did after that horrendous double murder in Belmopan I noticed that many of the things that I had to say on behalf of the opposition turned out to be agreed upon by the Commissioner of Police. I saw him doing an interview where he said that on Pitterson Street the most murderous street in Belize that the police were failing so I think it’s not just Pitterson Street I  believe there’s a failure as I’ve said before from the very top. I also saw that the Commissioner said that in fact yes in fact Corporal Nah is a suspect in the murder of Michael Williams. So we the public, we the opposition need to keep the pressure on the Minister of Police and his Commissioner. When will the charges be brought against Corporal Nah for Michael Williams? And it brings me to the other point, this agreement by the Commissioner to open the Fareed Ahmad file to the public. I have made it clear that there is systematic corruption within the police department. Not all police officers are corrupt but there is a cancer of corruption within the department. So if you have a Corporal that assassinated, executed two civilians why won’t you have officers that will compromise the evidence? So that file that has been disclosed or been revealed to the public for scrutiny I have no doubt that that file is compromised. What proof do I have ? Again look at the rampant corruption.”

Despite police saying that there is no chance that they will be reopening an investigation into the case of Fareed Ahmad, Barrow says this would be the right thing to do.

Moses Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition: “So if we want to move forward in a new direction I say to the Minister of Police and the Commissioner let us start a new investigation into the Fareed Ahmad case. Let us follow through with the charges against Corporal Nah for the death of Michael Williams which was the murder that took place before the Ramnarace brothers. Let us have accountability. It is an insult to the media and to the Belizean people to hand over a file that we have all right to believe is compromised. Corporal Nah and Vidal and these guys were supposed to be untouchable and were able to do whatever they wanted to do. So there was a culture of fear within the department and so anything having to do remember Fareed Ahmad made a report against Vidal and Nah and I’m not sure who else the day before he was executed and then to say Oh well the police officer says Nah executed Fareed but we don’t have any witnesses that saw Nah leave the crime scene, of course we wouldn’t if we were not fortunate or misfortunate depending on how you look at it to have all seen that video of the execution of the Ramnarace brothers we may not have had any evidence in that case. Thank God for whoever leaked that so that they could not cover up. So I know that there are some in the public that feel that we could have been spared that traumatic video and the family could have been spared reliving and being revictimized but maybe the person did that so that they couldn’t get away.”