Peyrefitte also spoke as shadow minister for National Security on the 7News investigation into the 10 gun licenses issued to murder victim Ricardo Borja in 17 months between 2021 and 2022. As we have reported, there were three issued just between July 18th and 26th, 2022.
All these were approved solely by the commissioner of police. Asked initially about 2 licenses that Borja had, he told the press that the businessman qualified for more than one gun license.
Today, Peyrefitte said the multiplicity of licenses if incomprehensible and unjustifiable to him:
Mike Peyrefitte, Chairman, U.D.P.
"Now you hear the prime minister saying that if it was up to him, he would ban all guns. Well certainly the the Ministry of Home Affairs did not get that memo or that feeling or that idea. I haven't heard the commissioner who has never seen a camera he didn't like explained or justified how? A person from a commissioner who himself claims he doesn't like guns. How does a person get ten gun licenses in seventeen months? What's the justification for that? Was he running a security company? Was he having a private army? What? What is the justification for ten gun licenses in that short period of time from 2021 to 2023, so he can't blame UDP for this one."`
"What we would like to know what made him feel after the sixth and the seventh and the eighth one he said bwai you deserve one more and one more and one more. When according to him it's hard to get even one."
"So we would like to know what it is about that and they're talking about the passing of laws to make it well a three person panel and like that. That doesn't change the fact as well. Nothing that they try to know will shift the conversation from we want an audit of what was happening before and what is happening now. We want to know that, there is one person came on TV and said that she was in direct contact with a senior police officer who was taking care of the vettings. What happened to that? Who is that police officer? Why hasn't that police officer been arrested? Why hasn't that taken its course to the justice system? So no amount of passing the law to change the system going forward will erase the stench and this is one of the reasons why we want the audit, because we know of that one person who may have gotten 10 gun licenses in 17 months. But is there more? Are there more people who got 20? Are there more people who got 15? These are the things the public like to know."
We have asked the Commissioner for comment on the 10 licenses, but he has not responded.
