And the crimes in Cayo were the focus of the Leader of the Opposition yesterday during the debate on the National Security Council Bill, which will formally establish such a body.
As he normally does, Barrow called out the minister and the commissioner of police, but he also added that the PM, who is supposed to be the chair of the council, has been MIA where those meetings are concerned.
Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
"Never before I can recall, certainly not during the glorious years of the UDP administration did the Commissioner of Police's house get shot up, sprayed with bullets on the day that a state of emergency was declared. One of the criticisms that I always put forward to the public is the fact that we never see the chair of the National Security Council. And who is the chair of the National Security Council, Madam Speaker? That would be the Honorable Prime Minister. He has a hapless Minister of Police, waste of time Commissioner of Police, they both should go, both of their expiration dates have come and I always would implore the Honorable Prime Minister to come forward and speak in the public and let the people know that your government is committed to their security. we have been saying that on this side for years, I didn't even know that the National Security Council was still functioning because you never hear anything from the Honorable Prime Minister when we have these crises, when we have the most heinous murders, the most heinous attacks. Just the other day the Roaring Creek Police Station was sprayed with bullets and a short while before that, a Roaring Creek police officer was gunned down. We are living in trying times so I want to be cautiously optimistic that with this legislation formalizing the National Security Council, we will hear more from the Honorable Prime Minister and he will not leave, I know he and the member from Caribbean shore, they have a leadership struggle going on, I hear about what's happening in the People's United Party, but don't do that to him man, we need citizen security. It should not be politicized, not because the honorable member wants to overtake him in that seat, he has not funded Ministry of Police properly and he just leaves the hapless minister and his waste of time commissioner to do everything."
