Family members, lobby group resolute in their demands for justice for Nigel Christian

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Photo by Shamoy Harding
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By Theresa Goodwin

[email protected]

The Christmas season will not be the same this year for the family of murdered Customs Officer Nigel Christian and the many other families in the country that have lost loved ones through violence in 2020.

Christian is among nine people who were murdered this year. His uncle Tyrone Hill said things will not be the same without their loved one at home.

Hill, who took part in a picket yesterday with a lobby group that has been demanding justice for the Christian family for several months, told our newsroom that he has lost faith in the police and government officials.

“It is my feeling that the Prime Minister and the Attorney General have a lot to answer and I think they are looking in the wrong direction. The Police Commissioner is also sounding like a politician right now; he is sounding like them. I have lost a lot of faith in the system,” Hill said. 

He said his family is still trying their best to cope with the tragic circumstances and they will continue to demand justice within the context of the law.

Hill joined forces with several people yesterday along with the Concerned Citizens group that has been lobbying for the case to come to a successful conclusion. The group hosted its fourth picket on American Road in front of the Police Headquarters.

The group has also penned a fourth letter to the Public Safety Minister, Steadroy Benjamin, expressing what it termed as deep disappointment with the progress of the investigation.

They also claim the police force appear to only act whenever a protest is announced.

“These media appearances are extremely painful for members of his family and Concerned Citizens, since they are nothing more than empty rhetoric, which provide little comfort to a family whose son, respected Customs Inspector, Nigel Christian, was brazenly kidnapped and brutally murdered. His family will spend Christmas without [him],” the letter read.

Former parliamentarian Dr Jacqui Quinn, who is a member of the group, said she is of the belief that members of the police force are working to solve the crime.

They are however, troubled that the relevant authorities have not provided enough information to the family, the group, and the general public.

“We have asked the government to request assistance from Scotland Yard and to this day there has been no credible information that Scotland Yyard has been contacted, or if they were on the ground assisting with the investigation.

“We are at the end of 2020 and this case is going to be unsolved going into 2021. We are saying we do not want it to be swept under the carpet, we do not want this to go cold and we are calling on the Attorney General of this country to call for assistance from Scotland Yard because this is bigger than the Royal Police Force of Antigua and Barbuda,” Dr Quinn said.

Earlier this week, the police revealed that cracking the Nigel Christian murder case and two other unsolved homicides of 2020, will depend heavily on circumstantial evidence.

Even after soliciting assistance from regional and international partners, Police Commissioner Atlee Rodney noted that the absence of witnesses makes solving these cases more challenging.

Christian was kidnapped from his McKinnons home in July, hours before his body was found riddled with bullets, in a crime which shocked the nation.

His murder is one of three for 2020 that have not been solved.

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