Min­is­ter of Youth De­vel­op­ment and Na­tion­al Ser­vice Fos­ter Cum­mings says the UNC is “en­gaged in fear­mon­ger­ing to mask its lack of per­for­mance.”

Cum­mings made the claim dur­ing a PNM meet­ing at En­ter­prise, Ch­agua­nas, on Thurs­day evening, as he apol­o­gised to the youth of the na­tion for com­ments made by Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar ear­li­er this week.

Cum­mings ac­cused Per­sad-Bisses­sar of en­cour­ag­ing law-abid­ing cit­i­zens to choose vi­o­lence with her com­ments re­lat­ed to home in­va­sions.

He said when he heard the Op­po­si­tion Leader had ini­tial­ly called for na­tion­als to gun down in­trud­ers, he thought it was some­one spread­ing a false video on so­cial me­dia.

“I said this thing is not re­al, let me go and check it and play it back. Ah play it back again, but it sound­ing like the woman, is that some leader of a po­lit­i­cal par­ty talk­ing about stand your ground leg­is­la­tion in T&T,” he asked.

“Stand which ground? So I could be com­ing by your house in Lange Park with my lil PNM jer­sey say­ing ‘knock, knock, knock I come to find out if you will please vote for Lisa Hold­er for this’...Badang shot. The Leader of the Op­po­si­tion say ah could shoot yuh and emp­ty meh clip,” Cum­mings said.

Cum­mings al­so said he was con­cerned about the im­pact the com­ment would have on the youth of this coun­try and even apol­o­gised to them on be­half of Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

“Chil­dren of T&T, I apol­o­gise to you on be­half of the Leader of the Op­po­si­tion. That is not what good gov­er­nance is about. Doh emp­ty yuh clip on no­body please, stay away from guns, re­sist vi­o­lence and live a peace­able life. We are all con­cerned about crime but we are not en­cour­ag­ing you to be­come a vig­i­lante,” Cum­mings urged.

He added, “They have spent all of their time fear­mon­ger­ing, stay­ing away from the re­al is­sues be­cause in all of the cor­po­ra­tions where they have been con­trol­ling, in­clud­ing Ch­agua­nas, they have per­formed hor­ri­bly.”