The Leader of the Op­po­si­tion has again called for the re­moval of Fitzger­ald Hinds MP as Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, as the coun­try record­ed 22 mur­ders in 14 days.

In a strong­ly word­ed state­ment, Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar SC MP de­scribes Min­is­ter Hinds as “a weak and ab­surd ap­point­ment that Row­ley must now move on from for the good of the coun­try.”

“Since Kei­th Row­ley ridicu­lous­ly ap­point­ed Fitzger­ald Hinds to helm the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, an alarm­ing 960 peo­ple have been mur­dered,” the Op­po­si­tion Leader ar­gues. “In ad­di­tion, vi­o­lent as­saults, wound­ings, rob­beries, car­jack­ings, rapes and home in­va­sions have al­so ex­plod­ed.”

She al­so de­scribed the year 2022 as the dead­liest in T&T’s his­to­ry.

“Last year, the mur­der rate sky­rock­et­ed to 605 with a fur­ther 56 miss­ing with­out a trace, mak­ing 2022 the dead­liest year in our na­tion’s his­to­ry,” she stat­ed.

The Op­po­si­tion Leader ob­served:

“We are on­ly 14 days in­to 2023 and 22 peo­ple have al­ready been mur­dered.”

Ac­cord­ing to Mrs Per­sad-Bisses­sar, the time has come for the PM to put cit­i­zens’ se­cu­ri­ty first, rather than con­tin­u­ing to pro­tect what she says is an in­ef­fec­tive na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty min­is­ter and plan.

“Row­ley and Hinds have failed to pro­duce a work­ing and da­ta-dri­ven plan to tack­le vi­o­lent crime and re­store pub­lic con­fi­dence,” she said. “I call on Kei­th Row­ley to set aside his pet­ty stub­born­ness and not al­low 2023 to be even more bloody and vi­o­lent than 2022. For the safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty of the cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go, Fitzger­ald Hinds must be fired.”

The Op­po­si­tion Leader added:

“This is not a mat­ter of win or lose, it’s about do­ing the right thing to pro­tect our cit­i­zens' lives.”