Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine says it is time for Trinidad and To­ba­go to be­gin tak­ing the pro­tec­tion of its politi­cians se­ri­ous­ly, ar­gu­ing that last week’s al­leged threat against par­lia­men­tar­i­ans high­lights that se­cu­ri­ty de­tails are not a lux­u­ry, but a ne­ces­si­ty.

Au­gus­tine’s To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty (TPP) has two mem­bers of par­lia­ment in the Low­er House in Joel Samp­son and David Thomas.

While ques­tions re­main over the le­git­i­ma­cy of the al­leged gang-re­lat­ed threat that prompt­ed height­ened se­cu­ri­ty at the Red House and for some gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials last Fri­day, Au­gus­tine said the mat­ter must nonethe­less be treat­ed with the ut­most se­ri­ous­ness.