T&T Minister blasts Rowley for releasing ‘doctored’ police report on ‘plot’ to kill PM

(Trinidad Express) Acting Minister of National Security Herbert Volney yesterday described as “treachery” the leaking of a report by Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley to discredit the alleged plot to assassinate Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and three other ministers.

Volney said the report “is of unknown qualitative value, conjured out of limited information by a second division officer of the Police Service, opinionated only, unauthorised, doctored, (and) unvetted”.

He said the leaking of the report “is indicative only of nothing short of treachery … to whom the hat of dishonour should fit, let him wear it with no small modicum of shame”.

Based on an alleged threat, police last year arrested 17 men on suspicion of being involved in a plot to kill the politicians—Persad-Bissessar, Attorney General Anand Ramlogan, Housing Minister Roodal Moonilal and Local Government Minister Chandresh Sharma.

All were later released without charge.

Rowley had called the Government’s response to the alleged plot “hysterical political expediency” and last month handed over a copy of an “evaluation report” on the alleged threat to President George Maxwell Richards in his (Richards’s) capacity as Commander in Chief of the armed forces.

In the letter to the president, dated December 8, Rowley stated: “The contents of the report of November 23 is damning of the actions of the Prime Minister and the Minister of National Security. … They continue to mislead the public and abuse innocent citizens for the purpose of political imaging making to the benefit of the political executive.”

Rowley told the president two documents came into his possession “from a highly credible source” which he believed were copies of true security reports of November 18 and November 23. He said one Report spoke of a “possible/likely” assassination attempt and the contents of the second report—the Evaluation Report—”clearly demonstrate that by that date, it was well established that there was no credible threat of an assassination plot, plan or attempt”.

Persad-Bissessar revealed the “plot” on November 24.

The Sunday Express reported exclusively this weekend police had found no evidence to support allegations of an assassination plot and Police Commissioner Dwayne Gibbs said on Monday there was not enough evidence to lay charges but that the probe was ongoing.

Speaking at the opening of the new district office of the Legal Aid and Advisory Authority (LAAA) at Harris Street, San Fernando, Volney said yesterday: “I have the authority as Acting Minister of National Security to advise the national community that the so-called report said to have been passed on to his Excellency by the Leader of the Opposition in recent times is not, and I repeat, is not an official document of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service.”

Volney, Minister of Justice, said that neither the Commissioner of Police nor his “ranking uniformed staff” had seen these documents.

“Its (the report) use in the circumstances by the Leader of the Opposition without first authenticating its authority, smacks of nothing short of mischief in public office and an act itself of the very treachery that spawned it,” Volney said.

He called the Opposition Leader’s move an abuse of his office and “irresponsible behaviour to gain cheap political points”.

Volney said, “The fact is that the Rowley report is not given under the office of the Commissioner of Police. There is sensitive intelligence in the bosom of the Commissioner of Police and unknown to the author of the Rowley report. No doubt the author of the report based an opinion on the limited intelligence then in front of him.”

He commended Gibbs “for a job well done” and said Gibbs was on the right course. Volney said Gibbs was facing “unjustified criticism” since the crime statistics showed a reduction in crime.