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Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath have hit back at the Op­po­si­tion, fol­low­ing crit­i­cism that Gov­ern­ment mem­bers at­tend­ed re­cent Caribbean Pre­mier League (CPL) match­es de­spite al­leged na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty threats, the same con­cerns that led to the can­cel­la­tion of the In­de­pen­dence Day mil­i­tary pa­rade.

On Tues­day, Diego Mar­tin Cen­tral MP Symon de No­bri­ga ques­tioned how come the Gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials, in­clud­ing Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Khadi­jah Ameen, Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath and De­fence Min­is­ter Wayne Sturge man­aged to at­tend CPL match­es at the Bri­an Lara Sta­di­um in Tarou­ba de­spite the as­sas­si­na­tion threats loom­ing over them.

“It is fun­ny to me that, sub­se­quent to that an­nounce­ment, mem­bers of the Cab­i­net found them­selves in very pub­lic sit­u­a­tions where there would have been very lit­tle con­trol over the gath­er­ing around them, so whether that be CPL or their own UNC ac­tiv­i­ties, when it comes to their pub­lic meet­ings, there were no con­cerns for safe­ty at that point. I don’t know how you jux­ta­pose that to a sit­u­a­tion where there was a very con­trolled en­vi­ron­ment with every arm of the na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty ap­pa­ra­tus. I don’t un­der­stand how on one hand you cite se­cu­ri­ty con­cerns, and on the oth­er hand, you sit­ting in stands at the sta­di­um,” de No­bri­ga said.