(Trinidad Express) Former police commissioner Gary Griffith confronted Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley on the Moka golf course on Saturday and told him to his face that he was a “failure” who was busy golfing four times a week when the country is in distress.
The Express learnt that Griffith threw words at the Prime Minister, who ignored him and purportedly instructed his Special Branch contingent to not take any action against Griffith.
Griffith however maintains he broke no law.
The Express yesterday contacted both the Prime Minister and Griffith for comments on what transpired.
Speaking to the Express by phone, Griffith, political leader of the National Alliance for Transformation (NTA), related what happened and what motivated him to do what he did.
He said around 10.17 a.m. on Saturday he was driving in Moka on his way to meet NTA candidates when he saw Rowley on the golf course.
Griffith decided to pull to the side and shout at Rowley about his failed leadership.
Griffith, who lives in Moka, said he frequently sees Rowley on the golf course up to four times a week and he (Rowley) is visible to anybody who drives along that route.
“I was driving, I saw him as usual. I put down my window and I simply told him ‘there you are again doing nothing else but playing golf all day instead of going out there and serving the country and that is why I see you as a failure as Prime Minister’. As Commissioner of Police I know the law, there is no law in seeing someone and telling them they are a failure,” said Griffith.
He said he was about ten feet away from the Prime Minister and he (Rowley) did not respond, but looked up into the air. Griffith said there were no exchanges and it was not a “confrontation”.
“He (Rowley) was there leaning on his golf club, hanging out with his friends whilst Special Branch officers, in five vehicles, had to be like security guards watching him,” said Griffith.
He said further that the community is inconvenienced when Rowley is there frequently as his entourage with flashing blue lights bypasses traffic to get the Prime Minister to the golf course.
“If anybody could see that (his shout to Rowley) as being anything illegal or that requires law enforcement intervention it shows exactly why this country has reached the borderline if not reached the threshold of being regarded as a police state because it means that Keith Rowley and others can say the nastiest things about people on a platform but he believes that he some kind of demigod that nobody can criticise him in his face,” he added.
Asked why he decided to confront the Prime Minister, Griffith said he was upset and disappointed given the state of the country.
He said, “I am very disappointed that we have a Prime Minister in a situation where the whole country is virtually lawless, people are being killed three and four a day, the whole country is at the threshold of anarchy where people feel the criminals have now taken over and instead of you being the chair of the National Security Council putting in all your time and effort, having meetings, strategies, policies, you on a golf course and that really sickens me, it shows that he does not care.”
Griffith said he is also upset about the waste of Special Branch resources and claimed that officers complained to him.
“In fact the Special branch officers were smiling (when he spoke to Rowley) and then I was contacted by several other Special Branch officers who actually confirmed that it is really affecting the morale of the Special Branch where it is these officers have to be acting as security guards to protect a man four days a week on a golf course…that is an abuse of authority,” he said.
Up to last night there was no response from the Prime Minister to questions sent by the Express about the incident.
