PM urges young people to move away from a life of crime

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Jan 28, CMC – Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley is urging young people to move away from a life of crime as the murder toll in Trinidad and Tobago reached above 50 with the killings of several people over the past 24 hours.
In a statement, Rowley said that while crime has been, for some time, one of the most, if not the most critical issues facing Trinidad and Tobago, “the particularly heinous murders over the recent weeks have been nothing short of traumatising for the entire nation.
“The loss of life through violent and unlawful means is wholly unacceptable. In recent weeks we have seen teenaged school girls being abducted and their young lives brutally snuffed out. Women continue to die through violent means. We are witnessing scenes where bodies are being dismembered and humiliated for display.”
Rowley said that every murder is considered objectionable by his government but the especially abhorrent types of murders occurring in recent weeks have brought an acute sense of terror and trauma to citizens.
“It is the unwavering commitment of Government, to provide national law enforcement with what is required to do all that is humanly possible, under the ambit of the law, to find the perpetrators and swiftly bring them to justice.
“Government sincerely sympathises with all who have lost loved ones to murder and while we share the pain inflicted on the national community by those who engage in violent conduct we continue in our sustained efforts to bring the perpetrators justice.”
Prime Minister Rowley said he was appealing to “all those young persons who might be influenced by or attracted to violent criminal activity to consider the frequency with which such activities end in grief not only for their families but for the wider national community”.
He said the young people should also reflect on alternatives “which would provide more acceptable outcomes to their valuable lives”.
Figures show that so far this year, 55 people have been murdered, the highest for any individual month over the past four years.  Last year January, 49 people were killed. In 2016, police figure showed that 463 people were murdered in Trinidad and Tobago.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Rowley is to host a series of informal meetings across the country, according to the public relations officer of the ruling People’s National Movement, Stuart Young.
Young, who is also a minister in the Offices of the Prime Minister and the Attorney General, said that the prime minister would be resuming his “Conversations with Dr. Rowley” initiative that he used during the campaign for the 2015 general election.
As Prime Minister he also intends to go around the country and go to meet and greet the people, the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago,” Young said at the end of a PNM Council meeting on Saturday.
“It is appropriate now and the Prime Minister feels it is appropriate to get back out there in a non-election mode and have conversations with the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago.”