An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro is stick­ing to his promise to re­store peace across T&T and re­build pub­lic trust in the fight against crime.

Speak­ing at the TTPS Wor­ship, Word and War­fare Fo­rum at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah yes­ter­day, Gue­var­ro said, “The na­tion is in need of heal­ing.”

Call­ing on peo­ple to come out and get some bless­ings de­spite the dark skies and in­ter­mit­tent rain­fall, the com­mis­sion­er as­sured, “It is the TTPS and the law en­force­ment per­son­nel that are charged with bring­ing that heal­ing to this na­tion, and re­turn­ing law­ful­ness where law­less­ness ex­ists. We in­tend to bring peace to the na­tion, and we in­tend to do so in the name of Je­sus.”

He ac­knowl­edged, “God is with us. God is walk­ing with us. God is walk­ing along­side us and he is lead­ing our way, shin­ing the light on that dark path­way so we can achieve our goals.”

Echo­ing Gue­var­ro’s sen­ti­ments, act­ing Pris­ons Com­mis­sion­er Hay­den Forde ac­knowl­edged the nu­mer­ous chal­lenges fac­ing the na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty land­scape.

But he in­sist­ed, “I know it ap­pears as though the dev­il is hav­ing his way, but I de­clare to­day that no weapon formed against us will pros­per.”

He de­clared, “We will not be de­feat­ed.”

Ac­knowl­edg­ing that some may be shed­ding tears of sor­row now, he said joy will come in the morn­ing, adding, “We are greater than any­thing the dev­il can throw at us.”

Forde said the prison ser­vice con­tin­ues to stand with all arms of law en­force­ment and the jus­tice sys­tem, but more so with the TTPS.

“We have been un­earthing so many things that we don’t put in the pub­lic space to en­sure the pub­lic re­mains safe.”

He, too, called on the grow­ing crowd to trust God and the process. “God will lead us to that place where our charges, our of­fi­cers, will be proud of us and they will fol­low.”

To his fam­i­ly, Forde said, “We fight every day and it is dif­fi­cult, but trust me. We may be struck down, but we will nev­er be de­stroyed. We will en­sure pub­lic safe­ty is fore­most in our minds, and we are go­ing to win this fight.”

Tes­ti­fy­ing as to the role God and faith had played in her re­mark­able re­cov­ery af­ter be­ing shot mul­ti­ple times by a ban­dit last Oc­to­ber, PC Quian­na Ma­habir re­ceived a round of ap­plause from the con­gre­ga­tion of old and young at the QPS Grand Stand as she claimed, “It is not luck, it is not chance, it is God work­ing on my be­half.”

Re­call­ing the dif­fi­cult road to re­cov­ery af­ter be­ing shot in the head, arm, and chest, Ma­habir said mir­a­cles kept com­ing—her right eye, pre­vi­ous­ly shut, is now re­open­ing, and she is re­gain­ing feel­ing in her face.

Un­de­terred by what is be­fore her, she added, “We must praise God through it all.”

She urged peo­ple to see tri­als and tribu­la­tions as prepa­ra­tion for a high­er pur­pose and con­clud­ed by en­cour­ag­ing them to “pray it for­ward”.

Ma­habir, who was 30 at the time of her shoot­ing, was in­jured af­ter two armed men ap­proached her ve­hi­cle as she re­turned to her Ca­roni apart­ment around 1.35 am on Oc­to­ber 22, 2024.