Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, performing the duties of president, sharing a light moment with People’s National Congress (PNC) General Secretary Oscar Clarke at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).

One man has been arrested and one spent shell recovered in connection with the home invasion, robbery and shooting of the General Secretary of the Peoples National Congress Reform (PNCR), Oscar Clarke.

Clarke,74, is being treated at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) for gunshot wounds to his leg and groin and abrasions to his forehead that he sustained while fending off the four men inside his bedroom shortly after 8:30 Tuesday night.

Police Chief of Criminal Investigations Deputy Police Commissioner Seelall Persaud said one spent shell was also recovered.

The incident occurred at Clarke’s home located at Plum Park, a Sophia area that is closer to Eastern Highway.

Clarke, who is a former Home Affairs Minister under the PNC administration in the 1970s, was shot in his left leg, hip and abdomen during the scuffle.

His wife, Linda, recalled mistaking the four attackers for relatives she had been expecting until one of them identified himself as a policeman. Moments later, they dragged her inside and ordered her to lie facedown on the floor. She said they repeatedly asked for a canister but there was none.

They later went upstairs where they assaulted and robbed her son of an undisclosed quantity of cash and jewellery.

Prime Minister Samuel Hinds earlier Wednesday visited the veteran PNC politician and former Ambassador to Zambia and Cuba and chatted with him at his hospital bedside. “The high-spirited but still traumatized Clarke showed Mr. Hinds lacerations he suffered to his head after repeated gun-butts by one of two bandits that ambushed him, and the wounds he sustained from the gunshots after he attempted to retaliate,” the Government Information Agency (GINA) reported.

“I’m a fighter, they couldn’t knock me out,” Clarke told the Prime Minister who commended him for his valiance

Meanwhile, the PNCR’s North American Chapter condemned what it termed “the brutal criminal attack” on Clarke.

“This attack is indicative of the fragile security situation which Guyanese face daily. It also emphasizes the need for swift reform of the security sector and capable and sensible leadership of that very important government agency,” the North American Region said in a statement.

The North American Region of the PNCR called on the Guyana government to “make this fragile and dangerous security crisis a priority. The safety and security of every Guyanese is at risk.”

Following the ordeal, Clarke said he was rushed to the St Josephs Mercy Hospital but had to be referred to the GPHC after it was discovered that an x-ray machine at St Joseph’s was out of order.

“I think things went very well here (GPHC)… I think they were well organised. When I got in here, all the requisite people were here,” Clarke was quoted as saying by GINA.

Pre-emptive surgery services were also in waiting when Clarke arrived, but fortunately for the PNC General Secretary, the x-ray results and examination ruled out the necessity since no critical organs were hit.

One of the bullets is still lodged in Clarke’s left hip but he was told that there is no need to worry.

He told the Acting President that his fortune was secured in his belief in prayers and the fact that “his time didn’t come,” but was disturbed by the fact that his attackers, one of whom he was able to see, is a youngster in his 20s.