Renu­ka Singh

Op­po­si­tion leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar yes­ter­day said the High Court judge­ment that in­val­i­dat­ed the ap­point­ment of Gary Grif­fith as act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice was a “land­mark” de­ci­sion and showed that the Con­sti­tu­tion was work­ing.

Speak­ing at a me­dia con­fer­ence at the Of­fice of the Op­po­si­tion Leader in Port-of-Spain soon af­ter the rul­ing by High Court Judge Na­dia Kan­ga­loo, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said,“Mr Grif­fith’s act­ing ap­point­ment was un­con­sti­tu­tion­al and il­le­gal and has been de­clared null and void and of no le­gal ef­fect.”

She said that this rul­ing now proved that At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Faris Al-Rawi was wrong and that he need­ed to demit of­fice.

She said the 2009 or­der and the 2021 or­der, both draft­ed by the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment Gov­ern­ment, were struck down by the courts.

“This judge­ment vin­di­cates the po­si­tion that we have tak­en on this mat­ter. This judge­ment means that both the ‘09 or­der and the 2021 were ul­tra vires, il­le­gal and un­con­sti­tu­tion­al.

“There is no Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice in our land, there is no act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice as we speak. The ap­point­ment of (DCP Mc­Don­ald) Ja­cob is null and void be­cause of the or­der that he was ap­point­ed un­der,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­called Al-Rawi’s “ar­ro­gance and pompous words” to de­fend the or­der he draft­ed and brought to Par­lia­ment in 2021.

She re­called and quot­ed the AG in Par­lia­ment de­fend­ing the draft­ing of the or­der.

“Faris is un­fit to hold of­fice. He no longer has any cred­i­bil­i­ty and that, cou­pled with his re­cusals and his rentals and cou­pled with this il­le­gal in­dem­ni­ty,” she said, re­fer­ring to the al­leged doc­u­ment in­dem­ni­fy­ing State wit­ness Vin­cent Nel­son QC in a case against for­mer at­tor­ney gen­er­al Anand Ram­lo­gan.

“The pub­lic can­not have the trust and con­fi­dence in him as the guardian of the pub­lic in­ter­est, as the per­son who looks af­ter the pub­lic, we do not have that trust, we can­not af­ter all this has hap­pened.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so once again called on Pres­i­dent Paula-Mae Weekes to stop be­ing the “poster girl” for the Prime Min­is­ter.

“Speak up! Don’t stand up there and block this thing, don’t be his poster girl, you are a bril­liant woman,” she said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so again called on the Prime Min­is­ter to come clean on the al­leged meet­ing at the Of­fice of the Pres­i­dent on Au­gust 12 with then chair of the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion Bliss Seep­er­sad and the al­leged in­ter­cep­tion of the CoP mer­it list that was sup­posed to pass to the Pres­i­dent and then to Par­lia­ment for de­bate.

De­spite the rul­ing, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said Grif­fith was prob­a­bly the best per­son for the job.

“This whole game is to get Gary (Grif­fith) out, one of the best Com­mis­sion­ers we ever had. All the things that have un­fold­ed, it’s like a de­lib­er­ate con­spir­a­cy to get Gary out. Why? One of the best Com­mis­sion­ers,” she said.

She said while she held “no brief” for Grif­fith, she be­lieved in giv­ing “a man a jack­et when he de­serves it.”

The Of­fice of the Pres­i­dent sub­mit­ted two names for the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion for de­bate - re­tired Jus­tice Ju­dith Jones and Max­ine At­tong, but Per­sad-Bisses­sar did not re­spond to the Pres­i­dent on them. Yes­ter­day, she said that while it was cus­tom­ary to be giv­en be­tween one to two weeks to do her due dili­gence, the Pres­i­dent on­ly gave her two days to re­spond to the nom­i­na­tions.

“Es­pe­cial­ly with the col­lapse of the Ser­vice Com­mis­sion, it (due dili­gence) be­comes even more crit­i­cal. Two days?” she said.

Guardian Me­dia has learned that the Of­fice of the Pres­i­dent will be is­su­ing a state­ment on this mat­ter very soon.