A motion to have an alert system named after Adrianna Younge, the 11-year-old who was murdered and dumped in the pool of Double Day Hotel, was presented to the House today by Opposition Parliamentarian Jermaine Figueira. The motion however, never made it to the stage of a debate due to the improper handling of the matter by Speaker of the House, Manzoor Nadir. Following an impassioned delivery by Figueira, the Speaker allowed Prime Minister, Mark Phillips to make remarks.
Opposition Chief Whip, Christopher Jones objected to this, and sought to understand from the Speaker if the motion was accepted. The Speaker did not provide an affirmative answer, except to say that he allowed Figueira to make his presentation in full, and given the sensitive nature of the matter, the PM would be allowed to respond.
Jones firmly noted that this is not in keeping with the Standing Orders, adding that a motion has to be accepted or denied before any other comments can be made. The opposition subsequently walked out since this protocol was not being observed.
During his presentation of the motion, Figueira said he views himself to be an emotionally strong person. However, nothing prepared him for what he experienced with all of Guyana regarding Younge’s murder.
“When I saw and witnessed Young Adrianna’s father, a man who without a doubt loved his daughter, jumped into that pool and embraced the lifeless body of his baby girl and cried out a cry, of only who feels it knows, it got to me, and I want to believe, it equally resonated with you too as with other Guyanese home and abroad,” said Figueira.
The parliamentarian said the tragic abduction and murder of 11-year-old Adrianna Young has profoundly shaken the conscience of the country, transcending ethnic, religious, and social divides. He stressed that this grievous loss demands not only solemn remembrance, but decisive action for justice. It is on this premise that he tabled a motion for Guyana to adopt a national emergency response system for missing children, modeled after the United States’ AMBER Alert, and aptly name it as the “Adrianna Alert System.”
In the United States, he noted that the AMBER (America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response) Alert system has proven instrumental in saving thousands of lives. Since its inception in 1996, the parliamentarian said thousands of children have been successfully recovered as a direct result of the system.
Figueira explained that the AMBER Alert operates by broadcasting in real-time information about an abducted child across all communication platforms, including smartphones. He noted that the system also utilizes radio, television, and highway signs, within minutes of a confirmed report. “This massive immediate dissemination empowers the public, the citizenry, our ordinary Guyanese to become active participants in child recovery efforts, vastly expanding the eyes and ears available to law enforcement who most certainly need more help,” Figueira explained.
Overall, Figuera said the implementation of the “Adrianna Alert” system would immortalize her memory not only through words alone, but through concrete, lifesaving action. He appealed, “It would symbolize the nation’s collective commitment to safeguarding its future, the children of Guyana, and demonstrate that from tragedy, transformative progress can arise.”
Figueria’s motion was met with an immediate response from the Prime Minister who detailed the government’s course of action following the murder of the 11-year-old. The opposition however refused to listen further, insisting that the motion has to be accepted or denied by the Speaker. Nadir insisted that this approach has been taken before but did not state any details of such an occurrence.
