Sampson wants Farley consulted before curfews, closed areas in Tobago

To­ba­go West MP Joel Samp­son wants the Prime Min­is­ter or rel­e­vant na­tion­al au­thor­i­ty to con­sult To­ba­go’s Chief Sec­re­tary be­fore de­clar­ing any To­ba­go com­mu­ni­ty a closed area or im­pos­ing a cur­few un­der the pro­posed Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions leg­is­la­tion.

Samp­son, who sup­port­ed the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill 2026 dur­ing de­bate in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives on Fri­day, said the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) should have a for­mal role when ex­tra­or­di­nary se­cu­ri­ty mea­sures af­fect the is­land and its res­i­dents.

While the THA has no au­thor­i­ty over polic­ing, Samp­son said it should be in­volved be­cause its re­spon­si­bil­i­ties in­clude health, emer­gency man­age­ment, schools, so­cial ser­vices, in­fra­struc­ture, trans­porta­tion and com­mu­ni­ty de­vel­op­ment.