OPPOSITION Leader Pennelope Beckles has accused the Government of seeking to minimise the murders of corporal Anuska Eversley and nine-year-old J’Layna Armstrong as well as the illegal dumping of bodies in the Cumuto Cemetery.
Speaking at a PNM town hall meeting on Monday night at the Diego Martin Community Centre, she criticised the administration for what she said was an attempt to downplay the grim discoveries.
“Fellow citizens, our innocent J’Layna Armstrong robbed of her future during a failed state of emergency. Police officer Anuska Eversley brutally murdered in a police station during a failed state of emergency. Fifty infant bodies unlawfully discarded, and they will have you believe that is a normal thing. How many of you hear about 50 bodies just buried in Trinidad very casually? And our Prime Minister say that is a regular thing—50 children, and that is a regular thing. This month we have already crossed 100 murders during a failed state of emergency,” she said.
Referencing municipal police officer Eversley, who was killed on Sunday and an autopsy showed she was strangled, beaten and stabbed, Beckles alleged the Prime Minister had minimised the incident.
“I want you to pay close attention to what the Prime Minister said yesterday in relation to the death of the police officer in San Fernando,” Beckles said. “The Prime Minister would have you believe that because it is municipal police, the municipal police building is—that is not really a murder, and that have nothing to do with the police, because there’s different police. And she’s telling all you, continue going around normal,” she said.
She questioned how citizens could carry on as usual in the face of such violence.
“It matters not whether it’s a police station, whether it’s a market, whether it’s a school, whether it’s a house. Murder is murder. And police is police,” she stressed.
Beckles also accused Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar of avoiding media scrutiny.
“Since June of last year, she is a government by WhatsApp, Instagram and e-mail, and you cannot see her, as we have been doing every Wednesday, making ourselves available to the press to ask questions. So, they continue to be clueless. They continue to have absolutely no sympathy,” she said.
Addressing a packed auditorium of PNM supporters, Beckles urged them to remain vigilant, particularly on the issue of the recent extension of the SoE.
“Because they are going to tell you all that your Members of Parliament didn’t support the recent extension of the state of emergency. Well, it’s true,” she said.
She continued: “We didn’t support it because, as far as we are concerned, a state of emergency is not a plan to fix crime. You can’t send home 50,000 people and promise them ham, lamb and jam.”
The Opposition Leader also accused the Government of reneging on campaign promises, particularly on taxation.
“In order to win votes, they told you when they get into office, no property tax. They also told you that they’re going to refund those of you who paid your property tax. How many of you have been refunded? And it is because they continue to lie and lie and lie since they got into office, and they feel Trinidadians dotish,” she said.
