Moonilal, Indarsingh object to Griffith in House

OROPOUCHE East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal and Couva South MP Rudy Indarsingh both questioned the presence of Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith in the House of Representatives yesterday during National Security Minister Stuart Young’s contribution to a debate on policing.

The House debated a Government motion to adopt a joint select committee’s report on the police manpower audit committee’s report. Moonilal said the particular independence of the commissioner was spelt out in a 2006 bill amending the Constitution.

“I did not think it was proper to have the hierarchy of the Police Service corralled in Parliament to hear the Minister of National Security.” He also asked why MPs were bothering to debate the JSC report if Young had already sent it to Griffith to come up with a matrix for action. Moonilal said his stomach churned earlier yesterday on seeing a photo of a murdered woman and her unborn baby both in a casket, alluding to Danielle Yearwood, 19, who was shot dead along with her husband Ricardo Daloo on Monday. He advised the Government to never forget the names and faces of murder victims, in reply to Attorney General (AG) Faris Al-Rawi chiding the Opposition for naming murder victims.

Moonilal hailed the High Court’s ruling yesterday in favour of PC Sharon Roop wearing a hijab. He boasted Roop’s attorneys were Opposition-linked Anand Ramlogan and Gerald Ramdeen, prompting Al-Rawi to say the ruling was based on a victory he himself had won for a client who wore a hijab and burka.