Police discover election plot

PORT-OF-SPAIN – Acting Police Commissioner James Philbert said on Friday that police had arrested five people believed to be part of a plot unearthed by security forces to disrupt the 2010 general election.The arrests were made after lawmen raided a house in Carenageon Thursday night, where they recovered a deadly AK-47 rifle and T-shirts belonging to the New National Vision (NNV) political party led by Fuad Abu Bakr, the son of 1990 attempted coup leader Yasin Abu Bakr.Among those arrested were a 15-year-old boy from Ariapita Roadin St Ann’s; a 22-year-old woman of McKenzie Drive Point Cumana, Carenage, a 25-year-old former member of the T&T Coast Guard of Gonzales Road, Belmont, and two other suspects, ages 27 and 21, of Ariapita Road St Ann’s, and McKenzie Drive, Point Cumana, Carenage, respectively.Philbert disclosed the threat during an emergency press conference called on Friday evening at the Police Administration Building in Port-of-Spain. Police sources said the suspects are members of a particular religious organisation in the country. They were held at a house at McKenzie Drive, Point Cumana, Carenage.“We have unearthed credible information which suggests that a certain group has expressed its intention to disrupt election proceedings, and acting on that information, as of last night, police from the Western Division responded to information and conducted searches, and in a particular house in the Carenage district. They arrested five people and they foundan AK-47 assault rifle, together with two magazines containinga total of 48 rounds of ammunition,” he said.“We want to reassure the public that the Police Service intends to carry out its mandate to the fullest extent of the law, and no one would be allowed to disrupt the elections campaigns [and] the elections proceedings. “We intend to allow no one and no body and no group, whosoever they are, to stop us from exercising our democratic rights in Trinidad and Tobago,” he said. “Our officers will act fiercely, fearlessly and fairly within the ambit of the law. “We assure the law-abiding citizens of T&T that persons will feel the full brunt of the law if they intend to, and if they show their intentions, to disrupt proceedings or disrupt any aspect of peace in Trinidad and Tobago, not only at this time, but before and after the elections as well,” Philbert said. (Trinidad Express)