Trust spent this freely should not be lent again

Dear Editor,

The chronology of conflicting accounts continued on the night of 12 October 2026. The first account from his side was that his team was “attempting to record video footage” of police outside the Barr Street home of Senior Superintendent Prem Narine, the key witness in his extradition case. The story soon changed. On 16 October, he said two parents from Ramakrishna Primary School had called about a fallen gate “when we were sitting at the back of my yard.” Two days later, he said he got the news while travelling from Parika to Georgetown. At his 26 October press conference, he admitted circling the witness’s home twice, on his way, he said, to inspect a school at about 11 pm over an incident some ten hours old. A backyard, a highway and a school gate near midnight: three settings for one phone call.

At that press conference, he said the surveillance footage of that night came from Special Branch^[1]. Police say a 20-year-old constable admitted downloading it on Mr Mohamed’s instruction, was taken by a Mohamed employee to the Houston residence and paid $800,000 there. His attorney then said Mr Mohamed “does not know this young man.” Special Branch, a stranger, or a constable allegedly brought to his home: these accounts cannot all be true. The courts will decide which, but each was presented as the whole truth.

The same press conference showed his relationship with numbers. He said the Guyana dollar had weakened to G$240 to the US dollar; the Bank of Guyana’s rates that week were about G$208 buying and G$210 selling. He demanded an uncosted pay rise of “at least” 100 per cent for public servants, against a wage bill of G$252 billion. And he again called the extradition a Government scheme, though the sanctions, the indictment and the extradition request all came from the United States.

Since his remand on 30 October, the family has added more. On 2 November, his sister Hadiyyah said he was confined “23 hours and 50 minutes” a day in a windowless cell that felt “as a furnace,” under restraints that left his hands and feet “black and blue,” and raised fears of poisoning.^[2] The Prison Service’s logs for 1 November show a welfare session, family calls, a two-hour attorney visit, a medical check and about 9 hours and 20 minutes outside his holding area. That evening, the Prison Service says, he told the Director of Prisons he had no complaints.^[3]

Put the episodes in a row and the pattern needs no adjectives. US$75,300 became US$695,000 and, on camera, US$1 million. Proof against the President became “Irfaan Ali never granted me no favour.” A jaguar became a leopard. Imminent delisting became an indictment. A refused salary became cash collected by proxy. A 10 per cent shareholder became a bystander. A courtroom bombshell became a routine morning. Fifteen State lawyers included the judiciary’s own staff. Filming a witness’s home became a school gate, first from a backyard, then from the Parika road. Special Branch became a constable his lawyer says he does not know. Twenty-three hours and fifty minutes in a cell became nine hours and twenty minutes outside it. And “collateral damage” became words never spoken, then words that meant something else.

None of this is a conviction. Mr Mohamed is presumed innocent of every charge, here and in Florida, and I allege nothing beyond what the documents and his own words show. But credibility is not decided by a jury; it is earned one statement at a time. In every episode above, the document came first and the story moved to meet it. A man who will reprice a supercar, rename a national animal and relocate a phone call will say whatever the moment requires.

That leaves the question that matters most to voters: could these people be trusted with government? A Minister’s statement to the National Assembly, a budget estimate, a commitment to a lender or a treaty partner: each is accepted because the person behind it is presumed to be telling the truth. Picture the Mohamed method at that level: a revenue figure that changes when the auditor calls, one contract value for the taxman and another for the supplier, a rule redrawn when it gets in the way, an inconvenient public servant written off as collateral damage. Each is something they have already done on a smaller stage.

Integrity is not a speech but a track record, and the test is what a person says when the truth costs them something. Each time the truth carried a price, the story changed and someone else was expected to pay. This Opposition has already shown how it would govern: one version for the public, another for the paperwork, and one household ahead of everyone else. Guyanese need only ask whether they would accept a Minister of Finance who declared US$75,300 for a car invoiced at US$695,000, or a Head of State whose account of a single night changed three times in two weeks. If the answer is no in Parliament, it cannot be yes at State House. Trust spent this freely should not be lent again.

References

1. Mohamed calls for Narine’s visa revocation, release of CCTV footagekiskadeewatch.com ↩
2. Opposition leader Azruddin Mohamed held in isolation at Lusignan Prison amid abuse allegations — Crimesite Internationalcrimesite.com ↩
3. Prison Service says Azruddin classified as 'high-profile prisoner'; family permitted to visit him, provide meals - News Room Guyananewsroom.gy ↩