Former police commissioner Gary Griffith has promised to provide details of evidence which he said would prove criminal conduct occurred with the retraction of the 2021 top cop merit list.
The list being referred to was the subject of national controversy after it was presented to President Paula-Mae Weekes on August 11, 2021 by the Bliss Seepersad led Police Service Commission (PSC) but then withdrawn almost immediately.
It was reported that Griffith topped that list of candidates.
Many questions were asked as to why this was done and who would have intervened.
Speaking on the Grand Slam Morning Show on Slam 100.5FM on Monday, Griffith promised to host a news conference on Tuesday with his attorney Larry Lalla.
“When I reveal the documents tomorrow (today) it will confirm once and for all to Trinidad and Tobago that very serious criminal activities took place in the rescinding of that merit list,” he said.
Griffith also criticised Acting Police Commissioner McDonald Jacob for his role, or lack thereof in the matter.
“It will show the incompetence of the Acting Commissioner of Police. For one year he sat on it. It shows that he was either incompetent or he was working as a puppet refusing to adhere to his role and function as Commissioner of Police to have that matter investigated,” he added.
Griffith said he has since been able to acquire the evidence that the law was broken.
He also indicated that while he has reapplied to once again be commissioner of police, he is certain he would not be chosen.
He explained that the reason he threw his hat in the ring was simply to show political interference.
“I could always do these exams with my left hand and unless there is a blatant degree of bias I will always come first. The point I am saying is I have applied specifically to show the democratic dictatorship in this country,” he said.
He said the first sign of a dictatorship is when a government or prime minister tries to control the Police Service.
“If I did not apply what Keith Rowley would have done…I would have given him a get out of jail free card and he would have then said well Gary Griffith never applied what you all telling me anything for if the country continues to go into mayhem,” he added.
However, he said if he was successful he would resign his post as political leader of the National Transformation Alliance (NTA).
In March this year, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley shrugged off any suggestion that there would be negative fallout from his admission that he was the “high-ranking” Government official who met with former Police Service Commission chairman Bliss Seepersad on the Commissioner of Police merit list.
However, he has denied interfering in the commission’s process to select a commissioner
The Prime Minister was reported to have admitted that he met with Seepersad last year in order to give her information that eventually led to her rescinding the Commissioner of Police merit list after handing it over to the President.