Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar has raised questions about Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley’s “sudden and highly suspicious” visit to Barbados.
Rowley announced during Thursday’s post-cabinet media briefing that he would be leaving for Barbados today for a “mini-vacation.”
However, Persad-Bissessar said: “It is unbelievable that Rowley’s sudden and highly-suspicious trip to Barbados is a personal vacation that was planned in advance and not related to this expanding abduction scandal of businessman Brent Thomas engulfing both governments.
She said: “The Commissioner of Police does not have the authority to deploy officers to function in any operation outside of the jurisdiction of Trinidad and Tobago without government knowledge via the Minister of National Security,” she contended.
The Opposition Leader said the statement by Rowley in his post-cabinet media briefing that he had “nothing to answer for” concerning the “alarming illegal abduction” of Thomas from Barbados is unbelievable.
“Rowley wants citizens to believe that as members of the National Security Council, he and Fitzgerald Hinds had no idea how police officers ASP Birch, Senior Supt Suzette Martin and Cpl Joefield were all able to commandeer a CARICOM aircraft, to forcibly and illegally detain and abduct Brent Thomas from Barbados?” she queried.
Persad-Bissessar said she understands that if any police officer had to travel abroad for any duty, approval is required from the Minister of National Security.
Thomas was charged last with illegal possession of weapons, including grenades and rifles, on his return to Trinidad. But the judge found that the matter involved serious breaches of Thomas’ constitutional rights to the extent that all criminal charges against him were stayed.