Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee on Thursday confirmed that the CCTV cameras that have been installed around the city and its environs are functioning and are being monitored by officials at the Central Intelligence Unit (CIU).
Speaking to reporters at a PPP/C press conference, he said he asked for the footage showing persons allegedly destroying the party’s billboards but had yet to receive it.
PPP/C campaign manager Robert Persaud had said that the previous night a gang moving around in a black Tacoma vehicle was chopping down the party’s billboards and in some cases throwing paint on them. Persaud added that the CCTV cameras captured the actions and he called on the police to review the footage and bring the perpetrators to justice.
Rohee, when asked if the cameras had captured anyone removing billboards and tearing down signs, said, “Yes I have asked for that to be examined as the ministry responsible for public order and dealing with these matters….”
He, however, explained that he was not yet in possession of the footage. “I haven’t gotten anything as yet because you know you got to take time to find the footage. The location got to be given precisely and so forth,” he said.
When quizzed about the precise information from Persaud that a black Tacoma was involved, Rohee said, “It does not mean that he had seen it on CCTV camera footage. Someone may have informed him. An eyewitness could have told Persaud that. It doesn’t necessarily follow logically that what Mr Persaud said in relation to the black Tacoma was drawn from the CCTV footage.”
