Obika: Govt wants to stop Parliament protests

OPPOSITION Senator Taharqa Obika has claimed that Government is planning to stop protests in front of the Parliament building.

He made the claim on Tuesday while piloting a private motion in the Senate calling on Government to table a strategic crime prevention plan.

“Can you imagine this administration is thinking about – and to me this is reprehensible at the highest level – stopping protest outside Parliament. Stopping the masses from protesting because they want to speak truth to power? That goes against the grain of what we stand for here.”

He described Parliament as the “people’s space.”

He said Venezuelan gang leader Darwin Garcia Gibori, nicknamed “El Culón,” was held in Warden Road, Point Fortin with high-powered rifles and grenades.

“But (Government) was not seeking to address the problem of the criminal elements that are coming in, infiltrating into our communities and they are making a bad problem worse. So communities where before I could have gone out at night, take a walk, be comfortable and free, now you don’t see persons doing that at all because the level of criminality that we are being met with the police service has no match for it.”

He called for the proper staffing and equipment for the Forensic Science Centre to improve ballistic testing. He said that unless Government’s solutions to crime were data-driven then they are wasting time as they have been doing for the last four years. He also called on Government to rethink its entire approach to crime and focus on operationalisation.

“Legislation will not solve that.”

National Security Minister Stuart Young in his contribution said the claim that Government was trying to stop protests was completely untrue. “This Government has given no such direction.”

He said the Commissioner of Police has said he will uphold the law and those who want to have protests outside Parliament must seek his permission first.

Young said he has heard stories of being brought in by bus to protest and when asked what they were protesting they did not even know.

On El Culón Young said he has signed his deportation order.