Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said yesterday it was “wicked and mischievous” for any Member of Parliament or any person in the know to suggest the Government was involved in the investigation and arrest of Commissioner of Police Erla Harewood-Christopher.
The House of Representatives unanimously approved the nominations of Junior Benjamin as acting Commissioner of Police and Curt Simon as acting Deputy Commissioner of Police.
Piloting the motion to approve the nomination, the Prime Minister said: “With respect to the investigation, the submission of a complaint to the Police Service Commission, the recommendation to arrest the Police Commissioner, the recommendation to continue finding information and evidence from the DPP’s office, (all this) has absolutely nothing to do with the Government of Trinidad and Tobago.”
Rowley said the Government was a separate line of operation of the State and could not get involved in a police investigation, police recommendation to the Commission, advice to the Commission, and any recommendation the Director of Public Prosecutions might make to arrest anybody in this country.
He said the Government would abide by the recommendations of the PolSC on this occasion. The Prime Minister said he had not a line to add or to subtract from the PolSC’s recommendation. He said he was there in the Parliament (piloting the motion for the House to approve the nominations of Benjamin and Simon), simply as a “messenger sent by the Constitution”. He said the Government was in an invidious position “where if we say no to this, we would be accused of taking sides against this gentleman (Benjamin) and in favour of somebody else; and if we say yes to this, it will be said that the Government wants this”. He said, however, the Government was merely discharging its responsibility for the PolSC to make an appointment that it wants to make.
Response to DCP’s request for information
Rowley said insofar as the Government has been approached by the police and the Government has reported answering a question raised by the police, that cannot be properly equated with being involved in the process of investigating and any ordering action against the Commissioner of Police.
He dismissed Barataria/San Juan MP Saddam Hosein’s claim that the fact that he provided information on the request of DCP Suzette Martin amounted to an involvement by the Government.
The Prime Minister said he had responded to Martin, with reference to the letter sent to him by her, dated February 1, asking whether Harewood-Christopher and former SSA director Roger Best had brought to the National Security Council’s attention the SSA’s intent to procure two sniper rifles, and whether Harewood-Christopher had brought to the NSC’s attention that she approved the request to procure the sniper rifles through FUL dealer Luke Hadeed, managing director of Aston Enterprises.
He said there was “nothing mysterious about the questions and nothing mysterious about the answer”. He said he was aware that as a result of that, “somebody may cite me as a witness in the matter”.
“We, like the rest of the country, await the outcome of the work of the police and the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions as it has to do with the Commissioner of Police or any other persons under police investigation,” he said, as he reiterated that as head of the Government he wanted to make it pellucidly clear that this operation had absolutely nothing to do with the Government.
“The Government is a separate operating entity in this matter to the Police Service, the Police Service Commission and the Office of the President,” he said. He said the police investigation had absolutely nothing to do with the Government, “not knowledge, not consent, not operation, not responsibility…The Government of Trinidad and Tobago has no role whatsoever in directing the police as to who they should go after, who they should investigate, how the investigation should go, who they should arrest or not arrest…
“And on that particular matter, like others, the Government will be informed about what the police are doing when the police make it public…The police informed the Police Service Commission of its operation. The Commission takes no direction from the Government, asks for no clearance or direction. And the Police Service Commission proceeded to advise the President as to what it would like to do with respect to the offices of acting Commissioner of Police.”
Never seen a merit list
The Prime Minister said he had never seen a merit list, adding that he had also never spoken to former PolSc chairman Judith Jones or current chairman Dr Wendell Wallace.
“Notwithstanding all that you would have heard from people all over this country, especially some of them in the legal profession and Members of Parliament, I have never seen a merit list from the Police Service Commission or anybody, not today, not before. Never! I have never spoken to anybody about a merit list,” he said.
He said therefore when the PolSC says it has chosen Junior Benjamin because he is at the top of the merit list, he has to “assume” the recommendation made by the PolSC was worthy of support.
The PM said Hosein was trying to make something out of the fact that he passed a report to the Police Service Commission (in 2021).
“Let me, for the basis of educating our children, our university graduates, our lecturers and all Opposition politicians, that the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, as chairman of the National Security Council, is duty-bound in law settled by the Privy Council to make available to the Police Service Commission any information or report on any pertinent matter which has to do with the remit of the Police Service Commission.
“That being so, Madam Speaker, I am appalled that this particular point has been led in the national discourse by a senior counsel who from time to time writes foolishness in the newspaper. And unfortunately that is where my colleague gets his support from, talking about the Prime Minister and merit list at the President’s House. Absolute poppycock!” the Prime Minister stated.
The Prime Minister said this was one of those days when the Government wished it did not have this responsibility. “But this is the day when the Government cannot create its own pathway as to the steps to be taken for the appointment of an acting person in the position of commissioner of police,” he said.
He read into the record the January 31 letter of the PolSC chairman to the President, in which he disclosed that Harewood-Christopher had been told to cease to report for duty and cease to discharge the duties of the office of Commissioner of Police as a result of an ongoing investigation into misbehaviour in public office, and that Benjamin and Simon were being recommended for the acting positions of CoP and DCP.
