Arrogance and shame

Losing it
Nigel Hughes fooled himself he was big and bad. In the courtroom, he would browbeat poor witnesses who obviously didn’t have his knowledge of the arcane legal matters he would raise. Well on Thursday, he met his match – and then some. In a repeat performance in the Linden CoI, he tried to ‘rumble’ against Senior Superintendent Hicken – a fellow second only to Rohee on Hughes’ “hate list”.
By now it’s become obvious that “truth” as to what led to the death of the Linden Three is furthest from the minds of the battery of opposition lawyers. Hughes – chairman of AFC and Williams Chairman of PNC – have made it clear that the CoI is ‘politics by other means’.  And since in their book, politics is ‘war by other means’ – it’s been war ever since July 18.
So with Hicken on the stand, Hughes fired his salvos, trying to trap the police officer into some damming admission. In a move reminiscent of Ali’s ‘rope-a-dope’ in the rumble in the jungle of Zaire, however, Hicken studiously refused to be bullied into admitting knowledge of the duration of a meeting, when he wasn’t sure.
Six times Hughes posed the question in one guise or another and six times Hicken, ignoring the growing fury in Hughes’ tone and body language, answered as polite as you could imagine: “I can’t recall, Sir.” Now in any other tribunal or hearing, Hughes would have been upbraided for harassing the witness with the same question that had already been answered.
After the seventh badgering, Hicken turned to the commissioners and softly said, “Esteemed Commissioners, permit me to…” But before he could complete his request, Hughes interrupted and purported to complete Hicken’s sentence: “Shoot me?” Gasps and nervous laughter from the audience greeted this unbelievable statement.
How could a lawyer in the midst of dozens of eminent lawyers and personalities think that Hicken was requesting permission of the commissioners to shoot him??!! It was dammed eye pass to all concerned, that’s what it was. But the Jamaican Commission Chairman Justice Lensley Wolfe would have none of this traducing of the canons of all social, much less, legal, propriety.
He demanded that Hughes withdraw his accusation or he would not be allowed to continue his badgering. Shamed and embarrassed at losing his composure before so many dignitaries, Hughes huffily withdrew from any further submissions and walked out.
Good riddance to bad rubbish!!
Nefarious plan thwarted Hughes’ explosion was long in coming. He’s chairman of the AFC. He’s in line to be the next presidential candidate of the AFC. He’s determined to outbid the PNC/APNU for the African Guyanese vote. So he’s positioning himself as their saviour.
After top party officials started the Linden protests that ended in the tragic killing of three Lindeners, Hughes figured he had an opportunity to raise his profile further.
He agreed to represent the relatives of the dead men before the CoI and incredibly announced he would prove that Rohee ordered the shooting. When his plan backfired – Rohee was not only shown calling after the shooting – they couldn’t even show that the police fired the fatal shots!!! Hughes saw his dream to succeed Burnham going up in smoke.
He became more desperate – and shrill. Flanked by the ever ambitious and avaricious Nagamootoo, Hughes had the gall to give the president a “48-hour” ultimatum to fire Rohee. Never happened!!! Then Agricola exploded in his face. Hicken’s fortitude was the final straw: Hughes blew up!!! Bye, Bye Hughes!