PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), Nizam Mohammed today faced increasing calls for his resignation after he made remarks over the weekend that there were more people of African ethnicity in the leadership of the police, as opposed to their East Indian colleagues.
“I am very disappointed in him, I know the guy well, I’m disappointed in him. He has done a disservice to the Government and to the party by his conduct. I expect that my colleagues will deal with this matter but this hasn’t done us very well at all as a government,” said Works and Transport Minister Austin Jack Warner.
Opposition Leader Dr. Keith Rowley is to meet with President Professor George Maxwell Richards tomorrow to discuss the issue.
A statement from Rowley’s office said “Mohammed’s behaviour as chairman of the PSC has become even more untenable in the face of his reckless, self-serving comments which he made to the Parliamentary Monitoring Committee where he outlined for himself the task of redressing perceived racial discrimination in the Police Service”.
The Opposition Leader said Mohammed’s statements, made at a meeting of the Joint Select Committee (JSC) last Friday “disturb the moral of the Police Service but also threatens the social fabric of stability which has been the hallmark of our existence as a multi-ethnic society”.
Warner, a senior member of the nine-month-old People’s Partnership coalition, said Mohammed, a former speaker of the Trinidad and Tobago parliament, should tender his resignation.
“I would have thought that a man of his stature would have been more circumspect. If I were in his position and I had done that, I would have resigned.”
“I feel offended because if you look at the history of the Police Service, you would understand that even in the old days when you couldn’t get people to work in the police service, we had to go to Barbados to get police officers to work here because nobody wanted to work in the Police Service and therefore what we have now evolved over time,” Warner added.
The executive of the Police Service has also called on Mohammed to resign, describing the statement as “a deliberate attempt to frustrate our efforts and to create some division within the Police Service and of course, by extension, the national community.
“We felt the statement by Mr Mohammed was insipid, at best. We thought it to be reckless, narrow and colloquial and really designed to make this country, and if I may use his words, ungovernable,” said executive member Assistant Commissioner of Police, Fitzroy Frederick.
“We are saying that the President should call for the resignation or revoke the appointment of Mr Mohammed so that there could be some peace and tranquility,” he added.
The Police First Division Officer’s Association also said it was disheartened by Mohammed statements. (CMC)