RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porterrad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Tabaquite farm­ers are call­ing for the re­open­ing of the Bras­so Po­lice Sta­tion or the es­tab­lish­ment of a new po­lice post in Tabaquite.

At a press con­fer­ence yes­ter­day, the farm­ers said they no longer feel safe in their homes or fields and are now de­mand­ing pro­tec­tion from au­thor­i­ties.

A spokesman for the group, Kel­ly Badal, said more than 300 acres of land are cul­ti­vat­ed by 100 farm­ers from the Tabaquite re­gion.

“We are the food bas­ket of cen­tral and we sup­ply many su­per­mar­kets and ex­port to sev­er­al parts of the Caribbean,” he said.

Badal said re­cent­ly the farm­ers have be­come vic­tims of thieves who mon­i­tor their move­ments be­fore at­tack­ing.

“We get robbed and it is oc­cur­ring not on­ly on the farms but in our homes, and even when we are trans­port­ing our pro­duce,” he said.

Badal called for a po­lice post in Tabaquite as the Bras­so Po­lice Sta­tion is no longer op­er­a­tional.

He said the farm­ers were con­vinced that thieves had been wait­ing un­til they leave the fields to strike.

“We spend eight hours in the field, and with­in two hours, they come in and take the crops. They pa­trol the roads and watch all an­gles,” he said.

The farm­ers have al­so been vic­tims of vi­o­lent home in­va­sions. 

Badal said, “Two weeks ago, a farmer lost his li­censed firearm and cash dur­ing an in­va­sion. He was sit­ting in his liv­ing room when gun­men en­tered his home. The sec­ond time they came in at 7 pm and they tied up his hands and feet with tie straps. If we had a po­lice post in the com­mu­ni­ty, we would see a dif­fer­ence.”

Pe­ter Nor­ie­ga, who was tar­get­ed in his home, re­vealed, “Three weeks ago, I was ly­ing down watch­ing TV when I heard a noise. A masked man came in­side my house, and my broth­er and I strug­gled with him. One had a gun. They left af­ter the fight with­out tak­ing any­thing.

“I feel they vi­o­lat­ed my home. Now I can­not feel safe in there.”

An­oth­er farmer, Nigel Mehar­ris, said the once peace­ful com­mu­ni­ty has been over­tak­en by fear.

“So many peo­ple have been robbed in home in­va­sions since the Bras­so sta­tion closed down. We re­port the in­ci­dents and the po­lice know ex­act­ly what is go­ing on but we have to wait for a pa­trol from Cunu­pia to get here when some­thing hap­pens. That’s not right,” he said.

Mehar­ris added that his chil­dren are no longer able to play out­side.

“We want to send a mes­sage to the ban­dits who are com­ing here to dis­tress our com­mu­ni­ty. We will take what­ev­er ac­tion we need to take to safe­guard our fam­i­lies,” he warned.

Farm­ers said they are feed­ing the coun­try, but feel aban­doned.

“We need the help and pro­tec­tion we de­serve,” Mehar­ris said.

Stephen Bap­tiste echoed these sen­ti­ments, say­ing, “Farm­ers need help now. We are fed up. We spend hours work­ing, and it seems we can­not en­joy the re­wards of our hard work.”

They are urg­ing the au­thor­i­ties to act be­fore the sit­u­a­tion gets worse as their liveli­hoods and safe­ty are at risk.

At a re­cent press con­fer­ence, Se­nior Supt of Cen­tral Di­vi­sion Naim Gyan said there are struc­tur­al is­sues at the Bras­so po­lice sta­tion which are be­ing ad­dressed.

How­ev­er, pa­trols have been in­creased in the af­fect­ed ar­eas util­is­ing man­pow­er from Gran Cou­va Po­lice Sta­tion, the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion Task Force and the Emer­gency Re­sponse Pa­trols. 

Con­tact­ed for com­ment ACP Wayne Mys­tar said pa­trols will be boost­ed in the Tabaquite re­gion. He ad­vised res­i­dents to call 486-9999 or 999 and make a re­port.

“The pa­trols will al­ready be on the ground and will re­spond,” Mys­tar said.