Police force calls on state media to correct article on Police road stop- money stolen

Georgetown : The Guyana Police Force is clarifying an incident that was reported to the police at Cove and John Police Station on September 08, 2014, by Mohamed Ishmael Latif, 54 years, a truck driver of Line Path, Skeldon, Corentyne.
Mohamed Ishmael Latif reported that at about 3:30pm on the said day, he was driving motor lorry GJJ 4169 on his way back to Berbice after selling cooking oil to business entities, when he was stopped by two police traffic ranks outside Sparendaam Police Station. Mohamed Ishmael Latif works with his brother who owns the business and there were four male porters with him at the time, two in the cab of the vehicle and the other two in the enclosed tray.
He alleged that during the checking of his documents by the two traffic policemen, two other policemen who were dressed in civilian clothing at the time, entered the vehicle and stole the sum of $1,985,000.00 which he had placed in the cab of the vehicle, in a pocket between the driver and the passenger seats.
The Guyana Police Force Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) is presently conducting investigations into the allegation made by Mohamed Ishmael Latif.
The initial investigations have so far not unearthed any evidence to substantiate the claim by Mohammed Latif that two police ranks in civilian clothing took away the monies from the vehicle and at the same time raises some issues concerning the veracity of the allegation.
During the investigation it was stated that while Latif was outside of the motor vehicle having his documents checked by the traffic ranks, a man in civilian clothing, and who claimed to be a policeman, ordered the two porters who were in the cab to go into the station.
While they were on their way to the station, according to one of the porters who was in the tray of the vehicle, he saw another man in civilian clothing exit a motor car which was parked in front of the motor lorry, and who went into the cab of the motor lorry and took out the monies from the vehicle and drove away in the motor car.
This porter, however, did not raise any alarm on seeing the man, as he claimed, taking the monies out of the vehicle; nor did he say any such thing until the report was made later at the Cove and John Police Station, even though the money was found to be missing earlier.
So far, the descriptions given of the two men “in civilian clothing” do not fit any of the police ranks attached to the Sparendaam Police Station.
The police have recovered $141,000.00 in the same pocket where the stolen money was reportedly kept, as the investigations continue.
This alleged incident was published in the Guyana Chronicle of September 09, 2014, under the caption “Porter, driver lose millions during Sparendaam police stop and search”.
The Guyana Police Force wishes to express its concern over the wording of the caption which seems to imply that the money was indeed taken away by police ranks.