Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Stu­art Young is giv­ing full as­sur­ance that the safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty of prison of­fi­cers re­main a top pri­or­i­ty for the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty.

All Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty law en­force­ment and in­tel­li­gence agen­cies are said to be on high alert and are work­ing co­he­sive­ly to sup­port the safe­ty of prison of­fi­cers.

Young, in a re­lease, strong­ly de­nounces the re­cent cir­cu­la­tion of threat­en­ing mes­sages be­ing made against prison of­fi­cers.

In thank­ing all prison of­fi­cers for pledg­ing their sup­port to the State and for their ded­i­ca­tion to du­ty at the na­tion’s pris­ons de­spite the cur­rent chal­lenges, he vowed to con­tin­ue work­ing to­geth­er with the Trinidad and To­ba­go Prison Ser­vice to pro­vide of­fi­cers with a greater sense of se­cu­ri­ty while per­form­ing their du­ties.

Ear­li­er, on Tues­day, Com­mis­sion­er of Pris­ons, Ger­ard Wil­son ad­vised all of­fi­cers of the T&T Prison Ser­vice to ex­er­cise ex­treme cau­tion and vig­i­lance es­pe­cial­ly when off-du­ty.

The ad­vi­so­ry came af­ter sev­er­al threats be­gan cir­cu­lat­ing via the What­sApp medi­um, in­di­cat­ing a plot to 'kill any two of­fi­cers'.

The ad­vi­so­ry al­so came hours af­ter the ex-wife of a prison of­fi­cer, Sher­ry Ann Wat­son, 51, was killed sec­onds af­ter she ar­rived at her home in Mal­abar on Mon­day.

Wat­son and her ex-hus­band have been di­vorced for the past 13 years.

How­ev­er, the mo­tive for her mur­der is still yet to be de­ter­mined but the link to a death threat against prison of­fi­cers and their fam­i­lies are not to be ruled out just yet.

Wat­son's ex-hus­band is cur­rent­ly a Prison Ar­mour­er.

Ac­cord­ing to Wil­son, all se­cu­ri­ty agen­cies are on high alert and di­rec­tives are in place, es­pe­cial­ly for of­fi­cers who live in what are deemed 'high risk' ar­eas.

"The T&T Prison Ser­vice con­tin­ues to part­ner with oth­er se­cu­ri­ty agen­cies in up­hold­ing its man­date of safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty for all, " Wil­son said.

Asked what mea­sures are in place for of­fi­cers, he replied: "Well you know this is noth­ing new in the Pris­ons and we just take the same pre­cau­tions as we did pre­vi­ous­ly. The T&T Po­lice Ser­vice is al­so very sup­port­ive so we al­so re­ly on them for pro­tec­tion and I know they will have sur­veil­lance in ar­eas where of­fi­cers may be vul­ner­a­ble."

Short­ly be­fore 6 pm Wat­son was about to en­ter her house at Al­bert Mark Street, Phase 4 when two gun­men am­bushed her and opened fire. She died on the scene.

An au­top­sy will be con­duct­ed on Tues­day at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre in St James.