During his second appearance at today’s session of the Commission of Inquiry into the 2020 General and Regional Elections, former Commissioner of Police, Leslie James was further questioned about the demotion of former City Divisional Commander Edgar Thomas. The former Top Cop told the Commission that his decision to remove Thomas from his post as commander was primarily because of his dereliction of duty.
The former commissioner said that as Top Cop, himself and other heads of the force were mainly in offices during the 2020 elections monitoring and assessing any situation that might have arisen during the tabulation process of the election.
He reiterated his prior testimony that he was only made aware of the “mayhem” at the Command Center from news reports and videos posted on social media. At yesterday’s hearing, James told the commission that Thomas was removed because he was not answering calls made by him or other Deputy Commissioners.
Today, James told the Commission a different story. Instead, he noted that his decision was based on a conversation he had with former Divisional Commander Phillip Azore, who opted not to testify before the commission today.
“After Thomas was unreachable, I contacted Azore and he informed me that Thomas had jumped into his vehicle and left the command center… in my opinion this was a dereliction of duty because you cannot leave a post where you are stationed at,” James said.
He noted that he was unable to substantiate Azore’s claim, since Thomas was unreachable via phone or radio set. James told the Commission that because his post was left vacant, he decided to appoint, on the spot, Azore to be Commander.
Commissioner Justice Carl Singh asked James whether he felt more confident in Azore. James responded, “It wasn’t that I was more confident, these are two senior officers with a clear understanding that the Guyana Police Force was expected to conduct proper security throughout the elections period.”
James continued to deny that he ever spoke to Thomas, who previously testified that he was in constant communication with him. Thomas testified that it was James who gave the order to clear the building. James has since denied every giving that instruction.
