MOONILAL: PRITCHARD PROTEST TOO MUCH

IT is a travesty that the Government will spend considerable resources to find out how firearms got into the hands of law-abiding citizens but would not enquire how thousands of guns reach criminal elements to kill innocent citizens. 

That is the rejoinder of Opposition Member of Parliament Dr. Roodal Moonilal to retired Rear Admiral Hayden Pritchard in the on-going war of words over an investigation into the issuance of guns by the police service. 

Pritchard was said to be one of the investigators who probed what has been labelled as a guns-for-sale scandal. 

Moonilal called Pritchard’s name on the political platform, leading to an angry response from the retired Head of the Defence Force. 

In response, Moonilal chided that Pritchard “doth protest too much.” 

He called on the retired officer to indicate the terms of engagement, including remuneration, for the “clandestine project.” 

He also called on Pritchard to indicate who retained him and whether he felt it was appropriate to be appointed by a politician for such an assignment. 

He said the retired officer should state whether, as Chief of Defence Force, he would have been comfortable with “a surreptitious probe into his stewardship, and one conducted outside of the independent administrative and regulatory framework.”