UNC Women’s Arm asks government: Where is the pepper spray?

The UNC's National Women's Arm has criticised the government for failing to make good on its promise to protect women from sexual and gender-based violence as pepper spray remains inaccessible to the public.

In a media release on Wednesday, the UNC offered condolences to the relatives of 21-year-old Keithisha Cudjoe whose body was found in the Heights of Aripo, Arima, last Friday afternoon.

The party noted the similarities in the circumstances between Cudjoe's death and the murder of 23-year-old Arima court clerk Andrea Bharatt almost exactly one year apart.

The UNC also suggested that women's safety in TT has not improved in the year since Bharatt's murder, and accused the government of lapsing in its responsibility to protect citizens.

"It is also one year since Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi promised pepper spray to assist women in protecting themselves from criminal elements. But like so many broken promises from this Keith Rowley-led regime, sadly, this is another one.

"January also saw a bloody month of 50 murders. The Minister of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds seems clueless and lacking the foresight and vision to handle the out-of-control spiralling crime situation. Nowhere is safe in this country right now.

"It makes no sense calling for the minister to step down when the entire government has failed for the past six-and-a-half years.

“But as a people we cannot continue to sit silently and watch the lives of our loved ones be snuffed out"

The UNC also called on citizens to come together and demand a new general election.