PRISONS OFFICER GUNNED DOWN

Acting Prisons Commissioner Martin Martinez in an interview at the family home yesterday said he believed the killing of his officer was a ‘hit’. “It seemed to be a ‘hit’, that is my theory,” he said. “In my opinion, he was followed and executed,” he added.

While Martinez said he could not speculate as to where the ‘hit’ might have come from, police sources revealed they were working on the theory that the ‘hit’ may have come from behind the prison walls.

Seegobin, 35, fondly called “Joey”, who worked in the visitations area of the Remand Yard Prison in Golden Grove, Arouca left home on Saturday night and headed for his aunt’s home in Five Rivers. On reaching there at about 8.30 pm, he was shot six times including once in the face as he exited his Mitsubishi pick-up van. He fell face down and bled to death on the road.

“I was hoping the shooting of Mr Sinanan was not the start of criminals targeting prisons officers...but now with the murder of Mr Seegobin...I am just not sure anymore,” Martinez said as he referred to an incident last week Monday outside the Golden Grove Prisons where Prisons Officer Anthony Sinanan, 30, was shot three times.

“Criminals seem bent on disrupting the prisons officers who are doing their job without fear.”

Meanwhile, a prisons officer who visited Seegobin’s home yesterday to express condolences to the bereaved family, said prisons officers had reached their boiling point and warned it is only a matter of time before something drastic occurred.

“A ticking time bomb. Prisons officers are fed-up and I believe we are producing time bombs,” he said. He is convinced that Seegobin’s execution was ordered from within a prison cell.

“That means they are studying us,” he said. “Who is next?” is the question on every officer’s mind, he said, adding, “The general feeling is that the criminals have declared war on prisons officers.”

He said the situation is fast becoming volatile in the various prisons, with officers severely traumatised and emotions running high. “Now, we have to hope that officers do not let their emotions get the better of them,” the officer said.

He noted that the problem is compounded by the Government’s reluctance to increase expenditure to protect them. He said expenditure on the national flag for $2 million or the extension to the Prime Minister’s house for $10 million, were examples of where the Government’s true priorities lie.

“We live in a place where crime is expected to be on the front burner, but now it is in the back burner. The Government would rather spend more money in games and entertaining than security.”

In the wake of the shooting of Sinanan, Prisons Officers Association president Rajkumar Ramroop called for increased protection for his members, to prevent any serious injuries to them.

Yesterday, a close female relative of Seegobin, who spoke on condition of anonymity, blamed Seegobin’s death on the authorities who did little to protect him. “We believe that the system has failed us...it failed Ian,” the relative said.

The relative said Seegobin was well educated and intelligent, but he chose the wrong profession.

She too believed the killing was ordered from inside the prison walls. “I think that within the prisons there are gangs with cellphones floating around and they called the shots from the inside.” No arrests have been made in the killing. Efforts to reach acting Commissioner of Police James Philbert for a comment yesterday proved futile. The murder toll so far this year stood at 445 yesterday. An autopsy is expected to be carried out today at the Forensic Science Centre in St James.