Slowe, Conway spurn criminal charges

TWO TOP RETIRED COPS ARE DENYING CONSPIRACY TO DEFRAUD AND RAPE
CHARGES levelled against them, blasting the allegations as politically driven by the Irfaan Ally
administration in a bid to oust them from the Police Service Commission (PSM).
Retired Assistant Commissioner, Paul Slowe and Retired Deputy Commissioner, Clinton
Conway in a televised press conference Monday rejected the slew of criminal allegations
levelled against them, claiming it was vengeance by the government for not going along with the
President’s favoured list of nominees for promotion.

“He mentioned the name Deputy Commissioner Paul Williams; he mentioned the name of one
Mc Pherson; he mentioned the name of Senior Superintendent Azore. It was clear…that the
President wanted me to use my influence at the Commission to get these persons promoted,”
Slowe said.
According to Slowe, last year in a meeting with President Ally, the Guyanese leader leaned
heavily on him to get Senior Superintendent Calvin Brutus and Senior Superintendent Karim
Baksh, among others, promoted.
Slowe said as PSC Chairman, he advised the President about the promotion process which he
said, involves recommendations from the Guyana Police Force, with the constitutional PSC
making the ultimate decision.

During the televised press conference Slowe said he also informed President Ally, that according
to PSC rules, if there are pending matters against any nominee, the prospects of promotion are
unlikely until the issue is resolved. Some of the Presidents nominees fell in this category, Slowe
reportedly told him.
Sometime after this conversation, Slowe said he received a telephone call from one Mohammed
Callander, considered a friend, and the two met at a city café. There Callendar informed him that

Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister, Mohamed Anil Nandlall, desires a meeting with
him.
“I was firm! I told him that no one will get me to do anything illegal; No one will get me to
compromise and therefore that was a prerequisite to be told to whoever wanted to meet with me.
I was also asked during the meeting if I would meet with Vice President, Mr. [Bharrat] Jagdeo
and I repeated (that) in my capacity as Chairman of the Police Service Commission I would meet
with anyone and that I wouldn’t compromise my ethics (or) do anything illegal” Slowe recalled
from that meeting.
“I (also) remember in that meeting he told me that he wanted to appoint a Commission that is
loyal to the government. I told him that it should not be about loyalty, but professionalism,” the
PSC Chairman recollected.
According to him, the pressure to promote some police officers seems a well-coordinated tactic
and came from several directions. For example, a mere one month after the new government was
sworn in last year, the PSC received a document from Assistant Superintendent, Edgar Thomas,
who heads the Presidential Guards Unit, recommending several ranks for acting appointments.
This was a flagrant breach of police procedure, Slowe said, since Thomas not authorised to write
to any agency on matters relating to the Force.
“The Commission met and I was told that Thomas should be rebuked for writing directly to the
Police Service Commission and I did so. I wrote a letter to him. I rebuked him, advising him of
standard operational procedure (and) the protocol reminding him that the Presidential Guard is a
unit in the Guyana Police Force and any communication from the Guyana Police Force to the
Commission should come from the Commissioner of Police,” he recalled.
Slowe recalled later receiving a phone call from President Ally about his “harsh” letter to
Thomas which he said, was penned on his instructions. Slowe believes that resisting these
advances attracted the wrath of the government and hence the trumped-up charges leading to his
and Conway’s arrest last month

“This charge is false and politically motivated. I have also seen in the media that I sexually
assaulted a female member of the Guyana Police Force. This allegation is also false. The charge
and the allegations are a diabolic plan of the politicians and some dishonest, vindictive, corrupt
senior police officers of the Guyana Police Force to remove me and Mr. Conway from the Police
Service Commission,” Slowe explained.
Said he: “The effort to remove us from the Commission was accelerated when we were written
to by the Prime Minister (Mark Phillips) to show cause why he should not advise the President
that we should be removed from the Service Commission. We both have responded to the letter
from the Prime Minister,” Slowe disclosed.
He maintained there was no conspiracy except those involving some politicians and dishonest,
vindictive senior police officers dabbling deep in double standards.
“Some of the ranks who had disciplinary charges, held the rank of Sergeant which means that the
authority to deal with those disciplinary matters (rested with) the Guyana Police Force and not
the Police Service Commission. So, you have a case where they are not dealing with disciplinary
matters, stating to us that those persons should not be promoted because of that”
But at the same time, “they are saying others who have pending disciplinary matters before
the Commission should be promoted. Well, we have not accepted that because that is a
double standard, and therefore that shortlist was created and those two mentioned persons
were excluded,” Slowe reasoned.