The opposition United Workers Party (UWP) has strongly criticised the government over the current crime situation, following what party Public Relations Officer, Lenard ‘Spider, Montoute described as a ‘bloody weekend’.
He said the situation was ‘unacceptable’ and could not be allowed to continue.
“We just experienced over this last weekend what I refer to as a bloody weekend, another bloodbath, Saint Lucia being drenched in the blood of our young sons in particular,” Montoute told a news conference on Tuesday.
He noted that the country had recorded five homicides between Friday and Sunday.
The fatal shootings included two separate double homicides at Marchand, Castries and Rodney Bay.
In addition, a police officer shot and killed a masked man during a home invasion at the officer’s Augier, Vieux Fort residence.
Mountoute told Tuesday’s opposition press conference that the government seemed to accept that it was ‘business as usual’ to the extent that at the time he spoke, there had been no decisive, definitive statement regarding the administration’s plan to deal with the crime surge and calm citizens’ fears.
The former Gros Islet MP reiterated a call for the Prime Minister, responsible for National Security, to dismiss the ‘ineffective and failed’ Minister of National Security.
Montoute accused Pierre of playing a gimmick on the people recently by appointing Micoud North MP Jeremiah Norbert as Minister of Crime Prevention.
He told reporters Pierre did not explain what the portfolio entailed.
According to the UWP official, if Norbert’s job is crime prevention and in one weekend five homicides occurred, apart from other criminal activities, the Micoud North MP has already failed.
“The government has to take stock. Come out and say to us what is your plan, especially in light that the opposition has offered suggestions and recommendations to the government,” Montoute stated.
“And the Prime Minister, who is the Minister of National Security no less, made a public statement that he discarded the recommendations and suggestions, that he threw it in the bin,” he recalled.
Montoute asserted that the Prime Minister had two options – retrieving the recommendations from the bin or replacing the National Security Minister with someone who would do better.
He said crime was under better control under the United Workers Party watch, than it currently is.
PHOTO: Lenard ‘Spider’ Montoute stock image
