Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

Op­po­si­tion Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Port-of-Spain North/St Ann’s West, Stu­art Young, is call­ing for the im­me­di­ate res­ig­na­tions of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der and De­fence Min­is­ter Wayne Sturge, fol­low­ing a triple killing in Bel­mont yes­ter­day that claimed the life of a 23-month-old child and two men.

Ac­cord­ing to the po­lice, tod­dler Aki­ni Kafi would have been turn­ing two-years old in two weeks.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Young said the lat­est killings are ev­i­dence of what he de­scribed as the Gov­ern­ment’s fail­ure to ad­dress crime and na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty.

“I am hor­ri­fied this morn­ing to be in­formed that there was an­oth­er mass mur­der in Trinidad and To­ba­go in the con­stituen­cy of Bel­mont and en­vi­rons and to hear the hor­ri­fy­ing news that a two-year-old child is one of the fa­tal­i­ties this morn­ing,” Young said.

The MP al­so drew com­par­isons to an­oth­er re­cent killing in­volv­ing nine-year-old J’Lay­na Arm­strong in Mor­vant.

“I call for the im­me­di­ate res­ig­na­tions of the Min­is­ters of De­fence and Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty and I wait with bat­ed breath for the re­sponse by law en­force­ment to this tragedy of a two-year-old when we had an­oth­er killing not too far away in Mor­vant of an eight-year-old girl,” he said.

Young al­so took aim at Gov­ern­ment’s con­tin­ued use of a State of Emer­gency and ques­tioned its ef­fec­tive­ness.

“It is clear to the en­tire pop­u­la­tion that the Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar Gov­ern­ment has failed in so many as­pects, to­day in na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty once again de­spite their on­ly crime plan be­ing the call­ing of states of emer­gency. They have had us in states of emer­gency for the ma­jor­i­ty of their tenure in of­fice. We are now in the third it­er­a­tion of a UNC State of Emer­gency and the mass mur­ders con­tin­ue un­abat­ed.”

Young added, “They have ab­solute­ly no plan and the cit­i­zens are suf­fer­ing. A two-year-old child—my sym­pa­thy and con­do­lences go out to the fam­i­ly and friends and to my con­stituents who are all no doubt in a state of shock and hor­ri­fied at this news this morn­ing.”

Mean­while, Laven­tille West MP Ka­reem Mar­celle al­so con­demned the killings, de­scrib­ing what he called a dis­turb­ing trend in­volv­ing vi­o­lence against women and chil­dren.

In a state­ment post­ed to Face­book, Mar­celle said, “There is a trou­bling and ter­ri­fy­ing trend in our na­tion, where the nor­mal­i­sa­tion of chil­dren and women be­ing mur­dered is be­com­ing ap­par­ent.”

He added that com­mu­ni­ties and cit­i­zens were be­com­ing de­sen­si­tised to vi­o­lent crimes and lament­ed that in­no­cent chil­dren were los­ing their lives be­fore they had a chance to grow and ful­fil their dreams.

“To­day, we awoke to the dev­as­tat­ing news where a two-year-old child and two men were mur­dered in Bel­mont whilst a moth­er is fight­ing for her life,” Mar­celle stat­ed.

Ref­er­enc­ing the re­cent fu­ner­al of nine-year-old J’Lay­na Arm­strong, Mar­celle said an­oth­er fam­i­ly was now be­ing forced to bury a child just days lat­er.

“My heart pains. We must do bet­ter Trinidad and To­ba­go. We are head­ing down a road of no re­turn,” he wrote.

Mar­celle al­so re­flect­ed on what he de­scribed as a break­down in com­mu­ni­ty val­ues, say­ing there was once an un­writ­ten code that chil­dren and women were “off-lim­its” and pro­tect­ed with­in com­mu­ni­ties.