SASCHA WIL­SON

Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Fyz­abad, Dr Lack­ram Bo­doe MP, says crim­i­nals have be­come em­bold­ened and a Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice must be ap­point­ed swift­ly.

Call­ing for pro­tec­tion of prison of­fi­cers, Bo­doe said:

"The killing of prison of­fi­cer Nigel Michael Jones yes­ter­day, at the Fyz­abad taxi stand in Siparia, shows just how em­bold­ened crim­i­nals have be­come in Trinidad and To­ba­go.  The fact that these crim­i­nals chose to gun down Mr. Jones in broad day­light, in a pub­lic place, and in the pres­ence of his six-year-old daugh­ter, is a sig­nal that they fear no one and will show no mer­cy re­gard­less of the cir­cum­stances. The fact that Mr. Jones’ young child will now be scarred psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly for life ob­vi­ous­ly did not mat­ter to these hard­ened crim­i­nals."

In a press re­lease, the Fyz­abad MP al­so ex­pressed con­do­lences to Jones's fam­i­ly, friends and loved ones.

"As a prison of­fi­cer, Jones would have giv­en ser­vice in the pro­tec­tion of so­ci­ety, in his role as a cus­to­di­an of per­sons in­car­cer­at­ed for var­i­ous crim­i­nal of­fens­es,” he not­ed.  "The very fab­ric of so­ci­ety is threat­ened when cit­i­zens like Mr. Jones, charged with the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of look­ing af­ter those in our pris­ons can so eas­i­ly be tak­en out.”

MP Bo­doe added: “The Trinidad and To­ba­go Prison Ser­vice, as an arm of our crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem is an im­por­tant bar­ri­er that pro­tects so­ci­ety from de­scend­ing in­to an­ar­chy. It is crit­i­cal that more be done to pro­tect prison of­fi­cers."

The Fyz­abad MP stat­ed his earnest wish is that the per­pe­tra­tors of this crime will be brought to jus­tice swift­ly.

"In this re­gard, I urge the Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty to en­sure that the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice is ad­e­quate­ly re­sourced, es­pe­cial­ly in the light of what ap­pears to be in­creas­ing crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty,” he said.

“The Gov­ern­ment must act swift­ly to pro­vide lead­er­ship at the high­est lev­el of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice, by en­sur­ing that a Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice is ap­point­ed in an ex­pe­di­tious man­ner," he urged.

MP Bo­doe said he was hope­ful the new­ly ap­point­ed Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion was mov­ing rapid­ly to en­sure “the best can­di­date for this crit­i­cal job” would be brought soon be­fore the Par­lia­ment.