Expressing deep dissatisfaction with Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre’s performance as National Security Minister, opposition spokesman Lenard ‘Spider’ Montoute has reiterated calls for his resignation, labeling his tenure as an ‘abject failure’ and ‘a disaster ‘.
Saint Lucia recorded its 30th homicide for 2024 this week.
Montoute told a news conference on Wednesday that the situation would require more than replacing Pierre.
“We want him to bring in someone who would make a difference because we have heard of the establishment of a new ministry and the appointment of a new minister, yet crime continues unabated,” Montoute observed.
The United Workers Party (UWP) Public Relations Officer emphasised: “What we want is not necessarily new ministries or new ministers, what we want is the curbing of crime.”
In this regard, the former Gros Islet MP told reporters that a plan is required.
“The Government does not have a plan for crime,” Montoute asserted, adding that the Pierre administration should consider the suggestions it receives.
He said there should be a crime symposium so all ideas could contend regarding an anti-crime strategy.
The former Minister said the UWP was eager to participate in any crime-fighting initiative.
He also disclosed that the opposition was planning a crime symposium for all parties to formulate a crime plan.
Montoute told reporters, “It appears at this time that the criminals are more organized than the government.”
He told reporters he had begun to see that killings in Saint Lucia had become a normal occurrence that did not jolt people and about which the government was indifferent.
“When our lives are lost. When people are killed in this country in the violent manner that we are seeing, it cannot be commonplace, it cannot be normal,” Montoute told Wednesday’s news conference.
