MP Hosein: Blame PM for crime

SADDAM Hosein, MP for Barataria/San Juan, rejected the Prime Minister’s recent disavowal of any blame for the spike in violent crime, speaking at a briefing at UNC headquarters, Chaguanas, on September 1.

Holding up a Sunday newspaper reporting the kidnap and murder of Andrew Persadie, 45, whose body was found in a Princes Town pond on August 31, Hosein lamented, “This is what we are ‘celebrating’ after 62 years of being an independent country under this regime.”

He said citizens were affected by crime, locked in their homes, including parents afraid to send their children back to school on September 2, fearing high levels of school violence.

“We are today met with, in 2024, a murder toll of over 416 of our citizens who have been killed.”

He lamented rising home invasions.

“Then, it shocked the nation, of the gruesome killing of five-year-old Anika Guerra. Her body was riddled with bullets, from that constituency of Moruga/Tableland.”

“The only response that the Prime Minister of TT could have for the nation is ‘Don’t blame me!’

“Today I ask Dr Rowley, who then is responsible? The buck stops with you.”

He complained of the PM saying crime did not rely on the government in power but was just a matter of criminals using an opportunity.

Hosein said Rowley was in fact responsible for TT’s governance and the crime situation, as prime minister (who names ministers of national security) and head of the National Security Council.

“Dr Rowley, you are abdicating your responsibility. Our citizens are fearful.”

On August 28 at a post-Cabinet briefing, Rowley said brutal murders were not done by visitors to TT but by individuals who were someone’s son, brother or cousin.

“It is somebody who we spawned here, who we fed here, who we defended here, who we gave opportunities here.

“And you will watch a five-year-old child, and discharge a firearm into that child’s little body?” referring to Guerra’s murder.

He said the killers of her and her father Enrico Guerra were “a different kind of devil...

“And don’t give them any pass in trying to blame me, because I have the responsibility to ensure that those whose job it is to identify and to chase down and to bring them to justice, that they are on the job (referring to the national security apparatus). That is my work, that is my job.”

On September 1, Hosein lamented reports of law-abiding businessmen being unable to obtain firearm licences.

“We have seen businessmen flee from TT to other parts of the world simply because of this extortion ring that is taking place in TT.

“As a young person, I often interact with many professionals and they tell me that if the PNM wins the next general election, they will no longer be interested in living in TT. There will be an ultimate brain-drain in our society.”

Hosein hit Rowley for distancing himself for blame over crime, but in 2012 saying a government that can’t handle crime was part of the problem.

“Dr Rowley, every single part of TT is under siege by crime but you are doing absolutely nothing.”

Hosein talked of Rowley asking youngsters to stay away from crime and take advantage of opportunities offered by the Government.

Saying he had walked with his statistics, Hosein alleged the Government had created an environment ripe for crime.

“You have removed several programmes that were in place by the last People’s Partnership UNC-led administration that were engaging the young people, that were creating a productive society, that were giving people a skills-based learning, educational opportunities.”

Hosein cited a drop in participation in six state schemes from 2015 under the UNC to 2023 under the PNM.

He said the number of HELP tertiary educational loans fell from 2,233 loans in 2015 to just 440 last year.

The number of trainees in three projects also fell from 2015 to 2023, namely MUST (from 3,310 people in 2015 to 190 in 2023), HYPE (from 771 to 208) and CCC (from 2,400 to 863.) Participants in the CEPEP work scheme fell from 11,069 to 9,771 in that period. Youngsters in the On The Job (OJT) programme dropped from 7,533 to 1,602.

Hosein said the UNC had urged the Government to help youngsters, but it instead reduced those programmes. He said more youngsters were engaged under a UNC government, than under the PNM Government.

“And you said what? ‘Don’t blame me.’ Dr Rowley, you are the only person that must be blamed for the crime situation in TT.”

He said Rowley’s time as PM had expired.

Hosein said the detection rate for murder was 18 per cent under the PP government, but just eight per cent last year.

He noted 2,461 murders under the PP government (2010-2015) and 4,316 under the PNM Government (2015-2024).

Hosein recalled the PP’s anti-crime measures such as the Community Comfort Patrol, Rapid Response Unit, Counter Trafficking Unit and National Operations Centre, saying remedying crime was “an all-of-government approach.”