Moonilal: Hinds 'hopeless, hapless, clueless'

Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal is concerned that National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds is trying to instil fear in the public as the state of emergency (SoE) comes to an end on Wednesday.

Moonilal said his concerns are based on Hinds's suggestions during a radio talk show on Sunday that some criminal elements have been waiting for the SoE to end.

Moonilal was speaking on Tuesday during a protest at Ramai Trace in Debe.

An irate Moonilal said, “It is really a crying shame and inexcusable that a minister who has responsibility for national security, for protecting the lives of citizens, can declare that crime will be on the increase (when the SoE ends).

“That is an abominable statement from a minister who is in charge of defending the citizens against criminal elements, to be declaring crime will be on the increase.

“He is telegraphing a message to citizens that there will be further insecurity, and terror, and he is hopeless, hapless and clueless to do anything about it, and that is a very serious statement.”

Declaring Hinds unfit to be national security minister, Moonilal called on him to apologise for Sunday’s statement.

Moonilal also took aim at the Prime Minister for suggesting the SoE was successful during a press conference on Saturday.

“They are probably looking at the statistics from another place – because not in Trinidad, they haven’t been able to keep statistics down in Trinidad, because the statistics have gone wild. Crime is out of control and Rowley is out of control.”