Crum-Ewing was more a nuisance than a threat – President Ramotar

March 25, 2015 | By KNews | Filed Under News

Even as the police investigations drag on into the murder of Courtney Crum-Ewing, President Donald Ramotar has described the slain anti-government protestor as nothing but a nuisance.

The Guyanese leader while addressing a West Berbice Chamber of Commerce meeting last Saturday dismissed suggestions that Crum-Ewing was assassinated, claiming that his (Ramotar’s) party, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic had nothing to gain from the killing.
“He was no threat to the PPP…he was no threat to the government…he was a nuisance value more than anything else. He was spreading a lot of racist talk on his Facebook, and all kind of things of that nature he was doing,” Ramotar told the Berbice business community.
Crum-Ewing was gunned down on Tuesday, March 10th in the Diamond, East Bank Demerara community, while using a bullhorn, urging people to vote against the ruling PPP/C government.
The killing is seen as having political implications since Crum-Ewing had been a thorn in the side of the administration. He had been protesting particularly the office of Attorney General Anil Nandlall, calling for his removal, following some controversial statements Nandlall had made during a taped telephone conversation with a senior reporter from this newspaper.
Ramotar almost labeled Crum-Ewing a criminal, and even suggested that the opposition might have a hand in his death.
“They put the Guyana flag on Blackie’s coffin and now they put the flag on this man Crum-Ewing

too who they claimed, I don’t know the motive, but they claimed that he was assassinated…political assassination,” the President said.
He asked if the opposition’s claim of assassination is to be believed, then who stands to benefit from Crum-Ewing’s death.
He said that the only persons who stand to benefit are “people who would go out there and talk, trying to whip up racism, trying to create division, trying to point fingers.”
Two weeks ago the president had ordered officers of the Guyana Police Force to leave no stone unturned in finding the killers of Courtney Crum-Ewing, and if necessary, find the “intellectual authors” of the crime.
“If his death was political as they are saying, well I would say that he was a pawn that was sacrificed for their own political ends, because we certainly don’t have anything to gain by that type of activity,” Ramotar stated.
“Which government will want to do something like that, to destabilize itself?” Ramotar asked.
There are reports that Crum-Ewing had been threatened by at least two persons connected to the government. However, a senior police official had indicated that there are no records to show that Crum-Ewing had reported the matter to the police.
But when contacted, attorney at law Nigel Hughes told this newspaper that he was not surprised by the police position with regards to the threats.
Hughes said that he was at the Brickdam Police Station when Crum-Ewing was arrested. The lawyer said that Crum-Ewing had told him about the threats and that he did report it to the police.
“I am not surprised that the police will develop amnesia,” Hughes stated.
So far the police have reviewed several tape recordings of the scene of the crime but have so far been unable to come up with anything substantial.
They did detain a few persons, but released them when they could not link them to the killing.
The police have been very guarded with the information they have been putting out to an obviously anxious public, except to say that investigations are in progress.