For­mer na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty min­is­ter Gary Grif­fith has crit­i­cised Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der, ac­cus­ing him of pri­ori­tis­ing the Po­lice Ser­vice over the wider pub­lic and mak­ing state­ments that are “bor­der­ing on be­ing dan­ger­ous and fright­ful”.

In a me­dia re­lease, Grif­fith said Alexan­der’s re­cent com­ments have caused con­cern, par­tic­u­lar­ly on the eve of Car­ni­val, when cit­i­zens should fo­cus on the cul­tur­al and eco­nom­ic ben­e­fits of the fes­ti­val rather than pol­i­tics and na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty dis­putes.

Grif­fith point­ed to what he de­scribed as a con­tra­dic­tion with­in the Gov­ern­ment over the host­ing of events in the west­ern penin­su­la. He said Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar sup­port­ed the de­ci­sion to host events there—a po­si­tion en­dorsed by De­fence Min­is­ter Wayne Sturge—but which he said con­flict­ed with Alexan­der’s stance.