The Opposition Leader, Kamla Persad-Bissessar said the Prime Minister incriminated himself and the TT Police Service when he shockingly confirmed that he knows Mr Akil Abdullah is a “police witness” in the audio tape investigation.
In a statement, she pointed to Rowley’s press conference on Thursday, in which she said he deflected from the very serious and frightening allegations made by Chief Secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Farley Augustine against him. However, she said, he only succeeded in further incriminating and implicating himself.
She said: “Yesterday while addressing a special assembly of the THA, Chief Secretary Augustine provided audio and video recordings of Mr Akil Abdullah. These appeared to demonstrate a conspiracy between Rowley, agents of the PNM and the TTPS to politically victimize and criminally charge the democratically elected members of the THA.
“However, nowhere in the Chief Secretary’s presentation did he identify and confirm that Mr Abdullah is an active “police witness”. He only mentioned that attempts were made to bribe Mr Abdullah to give a statement.”
Persad-Bissessar said Rowley boldly proclaimed that he had no idea who Mr Abdullah was, but today (Thursday) Rowley confirmed that Mr Abdullah is an active police witness.
“Confirmation of such sensitive information could only have come from high-ranking officials within the Trinidad and Tobago Police or officers directly involved in the investigations. It is clear that the hierarchy of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service has lost its independence and is a political tool of the Rowley regime.”
She said it was further troubling that at the Press Conference in true dictator form, Rowley publicly commanded the TTPS to initiate a witness tampering investigation against Chief Secretary Augustine.
“This is ironic considering that it is Mr Abdullah’s recording which shows him stating that he was offered a bribe of $275,000 to give statements to the police and attend meetings with Rowley and his lawyer which is the classic definition of witness tampering. :
Persad-Bissessar is now calling on all independent institutions including the Police Complaints Authority, the Police Service Commission, and any police officer who has not yet fallen under the despotic grip of this wicked Rowley regime to immediately stand up and defend our country from this plunge into a police state and full dictatorship.”