(Trinidad Express) The Prime Minister has sought to assuage the concerns of prison officers, assuring them the Government will do everything possible to secure them and their families.
In a statement on the Office of the Prime Minister’s Facebook page yesterday, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said: “We are very aware of the perils surrounding the duties of honest, hard-working prison officers and have taken note of the onslaught aimed at these officers of State. We will do everything possible to secure them and their families.”
He said: “It must be correctly assumed by all that the Ministry of National Security will not surrender the nation’s prisons, and the State will continue without ceasing to have Trinidad and Tobago remain a place where there is the rule of law and that there is adequate and effective law enforcement at every level so as to secure the peace and safety of all citizens.”
Prison Officers Association president Ceron Richards on Tuesday said the Prime Minister could no longer sit in the background, and as chairman of the National Security Council had to take charge in this matter.
“We are asking the Prime Minister cordially to meet with us urgently, and if the Prime Minister is responsible, if the Prime Minister is empathetic or sympathetic, the Prime Minister will meet with the Prison Service. Prison officers are being gunned down with impunity on the streets of Trinidad and Tobago,” he said.
The PM’s statement gave no indication as to whether or not he would meet with the association.
The Prime Minister’s statement comes after the murders of prison officers Trevor Serrette and Nigel Jones, both of whom were gunned down in what appeared to be hits ordered from behind prison walls; and the attempt on the life of another prison officer (as well as a police officer) at a shop in El Dorado.
Jones was standing on a street in Siparia, holding his four-year-old daughter’s hand, when he was shot multiple times, leaving his daughter traumatised.
Serrette was killed while sitting behind the counter of his fruit stall in Valencia last Friday.
The Prison Officers Association said on Tuesday that there was a “hit list”, in which 13 prison officers were marked for death before Christmas.
Deputy Commissioner of Police McDonald Jacob acknowledged that the Police Service was aware of the “hit list”, and assured that it would be providing more assistance, inclusive of patrols, to prison officers, especially those who are “soft targets”.
“They are targeted because they are readily found, and therefore they are used as a means to send a message… We are treating with this, we have uncovered intel, and we are working towards arrests even as we speak,” Jacob said.
He said they have been targeted not for doing anything wrong, but because of the profession that they are in.