UNC activist Victor Roberts has denied claims by the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) that he was granted permission to hold a march.
In a statement on Tuesday, Roberts said: “I have read a story in the Guardian Newspaper today (Tuesday) wherein the TTPS is claiming that permission was granted to hold a march. I categorically deny this.”
He said, “Firstly, despite their claims that permission was granted and I could not be reached, the TTPS is yet to respond to my lawyers who wrote on three occasions prior to the date of the march asking for the permit to be granted. Each of these letters were acknowledged by the TTPS legal department, yet no response that a permit was granted has been forthcoming to date.”
Secondly, Roberts added, “I was specifically called by the chief clerk (the call and phone number which is stored on my phone) and told that permission was denied. The TTPS say nothing about that in their release. It is only subsequent to that call did I put out a notice informing the public that the march was cancelled.”
“Thirdly, where is the permit ?. I have since the 10th of December, been visited by several police officers and units, including special branch, and no police officer has handed me the permit or a document duly signed stating that permission was granted.”
He said it is currently a criminal offence under the summary offences act to march without permission.
“Even if police claims are true that the TTPS were trying to reach me, having received a phone call saying permission was denied, the TTPS could not seriously expect me to continue with a march on “word of mouth”. I could have been arrested and charged on that morning because if yet another officer asked me to produce evidence that I was given permission, I had no permit or evidence of permission to produce,” noted Roberts.
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