Akash Sama­roo

Op­po­si­tion Chief Whip Mar­vin Gon­za­les is call­ing on the Gov­ern­ment to im­me­di­ate­ly end the State of Emer­gency (SoE), present a cred­i­ble crime-fight­ing strat­e­gy or step aside, de­scrib­ing the mea­sure as a “na­tion­al sham” and a “po­lit­i­cal hoax” on the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Con­tribut­ing to de­bate on the Gov­ern­ment’s mo­tion to ex­tend the SoE for a fur­ther three months yes­ter­day evening, Gon­za­les said the Op­po­si­tion can no longer sup­port the con­tin­u­a­tion of emer­gency pow­ers, ar­gu­ing that cit­i­zens de­serve a clear and ef­fec­tive plan to tack­le the root caus­es of crime.