Committee still Suspects Foul Play
by Carlos Atwell (www.nationnews.com)
THE JUSTICE COMMITTEE enquiring into the death of 23-year-old I’Akobi Maloney has no intention of approaching the police but still suspects foul play.
However, President of the committee, Ras Elias Tafari, wished to make it clear they were not saying that the police were involved in the death.
“We are not saying the police killed him as this has not been proven but he did die in their presence, and this is hard to accept, ” he told the DAILY NATION in an interview yesterday.
Tafari said they would continue to depend on legal advice on the correct course of action and were currently collecting information before drafting letters to the Attorney-General and Commissioner of Police.
As such, they will be having a meeting in Building No. 5 of the Harbour Road Industrial Estate at 7 p.m. tonight.
“We are taking this one step at a time and gathering information to make a proper presentation to the relevant authorities, ” he said.
The committee was started on June 30 with a mandate to clear Maloney’s name from any drug involvement and a wider goal of dealing with the rights of the Rastafarian people.
Their most recent act was a protest from Temple Yard, The City to Queen’s Park last Saturday.
“Everything went well and we got a wide cross-section of people to sign our petition and pledge their support,” said Tafari.
Tafari also spoke on Maloney’s character, mentioning he signed on a surety when Maloney attended the University of West Indies, St Augustine campus in Trinidad.
“He was a scholar, a spiritual counsellor and a philosopher who was adamant about community work. I never knew him to even smoke marijuana, I always saw him reading or studying,” he recalled.
Tafari said Maloney made a habit of going to secluded areas to meditate, which explained why he would have gone to Cove Bay, St Lucy shortly after he tendered his resignation at Arawak Cement Plant, a place where he worked as a chemical engineer for four years.
This was confirmed by his mother, Margaret Maloney, who said he had told her of a place he had found to meditate.
“I never thought it was a drug area but didn’t he have the right to go where he wanted to relax?” she asked.
Unlike Tafari, she firmly believes the police killed her son and vows not to rest until this is proven and his name is cleared.
Police state Maloney jumped to his death at Landlocks near Cove Bay, on June 17, after they responded to a call about a drug landing around 5:30 p.m., where they observed and interviewed him.
Tags: foul play, Landlock, meditate, petition, protest, Ras Elias Tafari