The Royal Grenada Police Force (RGPF) has been found badly wanting over false information put out on August 14 – one day after the end of Spicemas 2019.
The Police Force called the local press corp to headquarters on Fort George to announce that 27, 311 persons came to the island for the carnival which turned out to be nothing but misinformation and propaganda.
THE NEW TODAY challenged the lawmen to provide proof of this figure and one month after putting out such misleading information RGPF has not answered any of our questions sent to the Office of the Commissioner of Police and the Community Relations Department (CRD) on the matter.
This newspaper reproduces in full the questions that were sent to the police a month ago to provide proof that 27, 311 persons came to the island for carnival:-
- We need to find out what period of time did all these people come into the country?
- What is considered as the carnival period by the police?
- How many people came to Grenada last year for carnival based on your criteria for determining the carnival season?
- How many people came in by land or sea during this period?
- Give us a break down of the figures that came in at the airport during this period by the various airlines at MBIA?
- Give us a breakdown of the figures that came by sea including yacht.
- Did this 27,000 plus people put on the immigration form that they were coming specifically for carnival?
- Please also give us a breakdown of the regional figures in terms of the arrivals from the various islands like Trinidad and Barbados etc.
- How many of the people came into the island during the period not for carnival but other purposes like funerals?
- Why are the police taking on the responsibility of putting out this figure in such a rush and not leaving it to the Ministry of Tourism or the Grenada Tourism Authority?
THE NEW TODAY became very suspicious of this figure put out by RGPF and was very much concerned that it was done for pure political reasons and to send a message to the masses that thousands flocked to our shores for Spicemas under the current regime.
It should be noted that the information was gathered by the Immigration Department which is now under the firm control of a brother of a member of the Cabinet of Ministers of the ruling New National Party (NNP) government.
Investigations made by this newspaper revealed that the source of the information told his superiors that the period used to tabulate the figures mid-July to August 13 was the timeline used by the Grenada Tourism Authority (GTA) to determine the carnival arrival figures.
However, a few weeks later, the Tourism Authority put out its own press release pointing out that 13, 327 persons came for carnival and not the 27, 311 as claimed by RGPF in its dissemination of quite misleading information to the public.
Why the rush by RGPF to put out this information in the public domain?
This kind of information should be put out by the Ministry of Tourism or the Ministry of Finance which are expected to do the tabulation in terms of the economic and financial impact of Spicemas on the country.
This is not an issue for the police since it does not fall in their domain. RGPF is crossing the line.
The current holder of the Office of Acting Commissioner of Police, Edvin Martin was always ready to take questions from the local media when he held the post of Superintendent of Police and also Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) but today he is refusing to answer the questions that were sent to him on the subject matter. Why?
Is the Chief Cop now under pressure from the political directorate over recent happenings in the country?
Grenadians should not forget the recent disclosure from Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell that it was not for the Commissioner of Police to make a decision on the quarter million dollar payment given to the 14 elite police officers who comprise his Security Detail against a Cabinet directive that all public officers should take their holidays due, and failing which they will lose it and not be paid for it.
Who is really in charge of RGPF? Is there any independence in the Office of Commissioner of Police or the NNP Cabal is really running the show?