The Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) is investigating “a specific matter” involving someone who has contacted Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley after his mobile phone number was made public by a member of the main opposition United National Congress (UNC), Police Commissioner Gary Griffith said.
Prime Minister Rowley last Saturday described the behaviour of former agriculture minister Devant Maharaj as “dangerous and reckless” after he made public his telephone number “and encouraged and incited persons to harass and threaten me.”
In a statement, Rowley said that Devant Maharaj, who served as a minister in the former People’s Partnership administration headed by Kamla Persad Bissessar, had also published the telephone number on the social media.
But in response Maharaj said “I make no apologies whatsoever for giving out the Prime Minister’s cell number because his government is so out of touch with the harsh and raw reality and the pain and suffering of the public that communication from them will give him a much needed dose of reality.”
Speaking on a television programme on Tuesday, Police Commissioner Gary Griffith said while he has no intention of getting involved in the “political feud.”
“What I can say is that pertaining to this matter there is nothing illegal per say about someone actually giving someone a number to a third party.
“However, if that third party is involved in using that information to abuse or threaten another individual that is where the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service can kick in and in fact it has,” he said.
“I am not saying that it is because the first individual giving the number in the first place, but the only time that person can actually be involved in some sort of a criminal activity is if that person deliberately gives sensitive information of another person to that third party with the intention of causing damage or hurt or threatening behaviour to that other individual.
“I am not saying in any way that has to do with this situation,” Griffith told television viewers adding “ there is an investigation ongoing of a specific matter pertaining to someone that has actually contacted the Prime Minister and the Trinidad and Tobago Police we are investigating, but only with this matter.”
Griffith said it was important for the population not to lose sight of being “responsible” since “your action can actually cause a reaction by someone else…even though that was not the intention.”
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Rowley has dismissed statements made by Maharaj that he has in his possession the new telephone number for the head of government and would be making it public as well.
But in a post on his Facebook page, Rowley said “there is no new number for him to share because I have not yet operationalized a new number therefore no Cabinet Minister has any new number to give him.
“He is a dangerous liar. I am reluctant to change my number so I have been monitoring it to see the public’s response to his malicious incitement.”
