HOW STUART YOUNG PUT THE HEX ON GARY GRIFFITH

GOVERNMENT Minister Stuart Young may know of the former senior official of the Ministry of National Security who sought to have certain opposition politicians arrested and charged. 

That official was dissatisfied that the charges were not laid. 

Young may also be aware of the ex-official who had arranged monitoring of a former top police officer, including certain of the latter’s meetings and telephone contacts. 

That is a crucial background to the Government’s move to unseat Gary Griffith as Commissioner of Police. 

Current National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds has said that Griffith is now “a civilian and holds no power.” 

Griffith, who was surprisingly appointed Commissioner on August 17, 2018, was initially given an A grade by Young, as Minister of National Security. 

But relations between senior Government officials and the Commissioner became brittle within 18 months and continued to deteriorate. 

Leading administration figures realised that “Gary was not their boy in the way they wanted him to be,” said a knowledgeable source. 

The relationship got so sour that Young felt it important to stand in Parliament on March 1, 2020, and state that he was not spying on Griffith. 

“This is wholly untrue,” Young insisted. 

The minister’s denial followed stunning testimony before a parliamentary Joint Select Committee on National Security, in which he made a series of allegations of supposed ties between certain opposition politicians and gangsters. 

The claims are extensively detailed in the February 26, 2020 report of the JSC, headed by Fitzgerald Hinds, who is the current Minister of National Security. 

Opposition Member of Parliament Dr. Roodal Moonilal was one of those named politicians. 

When he declined to remove himself from deliberations of the JSC, Moonilal was kicked out, with the Government utilising its in-built committee membership. 

Certain senior Government operatives had felt that the Police Service had sufficient evidence to charge certain politicians. 

But those efforts were rebuffed, to the acute frustration of the administration figures. 

Despite Young’s denials of spying on Griffith, the Government officials claimed to have evidence of a senior officer holding sessions with at least one prominent opposition politician. 

The Government hardened its position against Griffith two years into the commissioner’s tenure, and Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley was anxious to have him removed, the sources said. 

At around that time, there were seeping reports of an alleged firearms-for-sale racket. 

Top attorneys in the PNM administration advised on the setting up of a team to investigate the reports.    

This was done under the rubric of National Security Council (NSC), a committee of Cabinet, which Rowley chairs. 

The Police Service Commission was bypassed, and its members did not protest as they were reduced to idle bystanders. 

The relevant Government officials were assured by a senior attorney that NSC had the authority to mount such an investigation, arguing that the Government is the COP’s employer. 

The messy turn of events has embarrassed both the Government and PSC and is seen as a breach of constitutional safeguards. 

The Government, though, had long been hell-bent on unseating Griffith, and was counting down to the expiry of his three-year term of office. 

Expecting the administration to play by the rules, Griffith continued to talk tough, and just last week issued a meandering statement that he would not be bullied or easily removed. 

He seemed oblivious that Young, acting on Rowley’s behalf, had long put the hex on him. 

The process would continue to be controversial, but the Government would prevail, Griffith would be displaced, and a new commissioner seated. 

There is speculation that current acting chief McDonald Jacob would land the job. 

There is now conjecture on whether the new commissioner would prioritise investigations into certain targeted opposition politicians. 

Much more twists and turns lie ahead.