Transfer of former Crime Chief Blanhum ‘blocked’
Former Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum
The administration of the Guyana Police Force has been ‘advised’ not go ahead with its plans to transfer former Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum to a remote location in Guyana’s interior. This was confirmed by a senior government functionary when contacted by BIG Smith Crime Watch this morning.
BIG Smith Crime Watch was told that that Blanhum who is currently pursuing his law studies at the University of Guyana received his instructions from the force to report to the interior location.
“Any moves to have him transfer to that place will only interfere with his studies” the official indicated.
BIG Smith Crime Watch was able to confirm that the force administration had arrive at a decision to transfer the former Crime Chief to Lethem where he would have been expected to serve as a Sub-Divisional Officer. At the moment, Blanhum is functioning out of the Department of Development at Force Headquarters.
The David Granger Administration has said from the beginning of its term that officers should be allowed to develop themselves, as such a number of them were allowed to peruse their studies.
Over the years, a number of promising police officers were forced to resign from the Guyana Police Force as they were not given the opportunity to pursue their studies and in some cases, permission for them to leave the country to complete their final legs of various studies, particularly law, were denied.
There have been instances in the past too, where the force was accused of allowing certain individuals to complete or pursue their academic development uninterrupted while others were given a hard time and posted to divisions and areas of the force which made it difficult for them to focus of their studies.
In 2017 a Commission of Inquiry report into an alleged assassination plot against President David Granger found that Blanhum while as Crime Chief did not handle the matter with the seriousness it ought to have been handled and it was recommended that he be removed as Crime Chief and given command experience, the latter which the report stated he lacked.
He was then removed and sent to the police ‘A’ Division as Deputy Commander where he functioned for a while before being returned to Force Headquarters where he functioned out of an office.
