Saturday, March 2 2013

OPPOSITION Chief Whip Marlene McDonald yesterday said Prime Minister Kamla Persad- Bissessar was “passing the buck” when she announced Acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams will investigate all reports regarding the alleged formation of a “Flying Squad” to fight crime.

Speaking yesterday during the tea break at the House of Representatives, McDonald scoffed at the Prime Minister’s statement. “Somebody has to pay for this Flying Squad fiasco,” she declared, charging that all Persad-Bissessar was doing was, “passing the buck from one to the next, hoping the country will stop thinking about it.”

McDonald said that like the Section 34 issue, “we will not forget about the Flying Squad issue.” “The Minister of National Security was going to give a statement in the House, then that was pulled back. Then the Minister gave it to her (the Prime Minister) and then Mr Heerah gave it to him. Now it’s going to the Commissioner. Then the Commissioner will pass it back to the Minister. When will this end? You need to be decisive,” McDonald said.

Diego Martin North/East MP Colm Imbert said, “It would have been far better if an independent person such as a retired judge or somebody like that was to investigate this very serious matter.”

Laventille East/Morvant MP Donna Cox said, “We will just have to look and see what police can do because at this time, it went to the (Acting) Police Commissioner to conduct an investigation, which I feel is rather late because in the first place, I believe the police should have been proactive.”

Cox, a former Minister in the National Security Ministry in the last PNM government, added, “This was in the media for three weeks. I don’t think anybody has to tell the police to investigate it because if we are dealing with an illegal unit, the onus should have been on the police to investigate.”