Young unfazed by Moonilal's latest gun claims

ENERGY Minister Stuart Young is unfazed by the latest claims by Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal about a firearm that he recently gave to the police service.

At a news conference at the Opposition Leader's office in Port of Spain on Sunday, Moonilal displayed a photo of the gun he claimed Young donated.

It was described as a Saint Edge PDW AR pistol.

According to the Springfield Armory website, this pistol is "a formidable personal defence weapon with premium components."

Moonilal reiterated the UNC's claims that Young had donated a high-powered firearm to the police.

In a WhatsApp message to Newsday on Monday, Young said, "As I have stated before, I followed the legal process both in the acquisition and disposal of the weapon.

"Both the acquisition and the disposal were approved by Commissioners of Police (CoP). The firearm was not an automatic weapon nor was it altered. It seems to disappoint those in opposition that I followed the law and proper procedure."

On August 22, Young dismissed the claims Moonilal first made at a news conference on August 20.

Speaking with the media after the swearing-in of new aldermen at the Penal/Debe Regional Corporation on August 30, Moonilal said Young had not been accountable on this matter.

He said Young was utterly obnoxious when he refused to answer a question from a reporter about the gun at the swearing-in of councillors at Port of Spain City Hall on August 25.

On that occasion, Young steupsed as he declined to answer the question.

He said, "This is something that we will continue to call on Minister Young to please indicate, (in) the national interest and the public interest, the circumstances under which he returned a high-powered weapon to the TTPS (TT Police Service).

Moonilal threatened to disclose information the UNC had about it.

"We are now in a position to name and I will...in the coming days...on a political platform...name the police officer and the unit in the police service that must be held accountable as receiving the firearm from Minister Young."

Claims about an unnamed government official handing over a gun to the police were first raised by Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar during last month's local government elections campaign. Persad-Bissessar did not name the official.

Lawyers representing UNC activist Ravi Balgobin Maharaj last month filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for CoP Erla Harewood-Christopher to say how many legal guns issued to people with valid FULs (firearms user's licences) were used in murders from January 1, 2020-July 31, 2023.

They also asked how many government ministers had been issued FULs and how many had more than one. The attorneys asked for the gun types and the amounts of ammunition they could carry.

Harewood-Christopher has 90 days in which to respond to the request.