Op­po­si­tion Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment, Rod­ney Charles, is warn­ing that this coun­try could see more than 600 mur­ders in 2022, if there con­tin­ues to be at least two or three mur­ders dai­ly.

In a state­ment is­sued this morn­ing, the Na­pari­ma MP, who is the Shad­ow Min­is­ter for Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty on the Op­po­si­tion bench­es, chal­lenged Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, Fitzger­ald Hinds MP, to do his ut­most to en­sure at least a 10 per cent drop in mur­ders, this year.

“Al­ready the coun­try has record­ed 43 mur­ders for Jan­u­ary, al­most twice the 24 mur­ders last year. No­vem­ber last was the blood­i­est No­vem­ber in our coun­try’s his­to­ry. Oc­to­ber last un­der Hind’s watch, record­ed the most mur­ders ever for any Oc­to­ber,” MP Charles not­ed.

“At close to 2 to 3 mur­ders dai­ly our coun­try, if the mur­der rate re­mains unchecked, is on tar­get to record over 600 mur­ders for the year,” he warns.

The Op­po­si­tion MP’s warn­ings come in the wake of the dou­ble mur­der in South Park Mall in San Fer­nan­do, in broad day­light, which the Po­lice Ser­vice says “was a well-planned ex­e­cu­tion”.  On Wednes­day this week, three ad­di­tion­al mur­ders were record­ed—a se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cer and two per­sons from East Port of Spain.

“We are in­deed in Wild, Wild West ter­ri­to­ry with cit­i­zens liv­ing in fear and crim­i­nals shoot­ing with seem­ing brazen­ness, im­puni­ty and reg­u­lar­i­ty. The shots fired at the South Park Mall yes­ter­day were heard by near­by Tarou­ba and St Joseph Vil­lage res­i­dents,” MP Charles stat­ed.

The Na­pari­ma MP is con­cerned that the coun­try’s mur­der rate is al­ready out of con­trol, and he main­tains the Min­is­ter must do all he can to pull it back from the brink.

“Last year, the coun­try record­ed 448 mur­ders, which means that Hinds must com­mit, if he is a per­for­mance-ori­ent­ed man­ag­er, to a tar­get of un­der 403 mur­ders this year,” he said.

How­ev­er, MP Charles is not op­ti­mistic Min­is­ter Hinds can get the job done and fears the mur­der toll will in­crease on his watch.

He is chal­leng­ing Min­is­ter Hinds to bring down the mur­der rate or re­sign as Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter.