For­mer Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith has called on Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley to tell the coun­try who is the gov­ern­ment min­is­ter who sought to get Grif­fith to fast track ap­provals for firearms, for the min­is­ter to be able to kill pigs.

Grif­fith made the claim in re­sponse to Dr Row­ley telling a pub­lic meet­ing in Bel­mont on Tues­day that his worst de­ci­sion was in sup­port­ing Gary Grif­fith for the po­si­tion of com­mis­sion­er.

"You should tell the coun­try who is the very se­nior gov­ern­ment min­is­ter that har­rassed me con­stant­ly to pro­vide ex­plo­sives for a friend in To­ba­go...to get ex­plo­sives with­out an OS­HA ap­proval. Who was the per­son who ha­rassed me to get spe­cial firearms for him­self to kill pigs and his list of all his friends, long and dis­tin­guished, ha­rass­ing me to get firearms fast-tracked for them?"

He added: "It's ok when gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials have se­cu­ri­ty to pro­tect them­selves but they want to get firearms fast-tracked. What I was do­ing is the en­sure law-abid­ing cit­i­zens get firearms to pro­tect them­selves from crim­i­nals."

He ar­gued that un­der him the coun­try saw the high­est re­duc­tion in crime and that he put fear in crim­i­nals.

He said pub­lic trust and con­fi­dence was 14 per cent when he took the reins of the Po­lice Ser­vice and that it move to 55 per cent.

"Eighty-nine per cent of the coun­try want­ed me to re­turn as Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice," he said.

"You hoped Gary Grif­fith would be a pup­pet and take di­rec­tions from your gov­ern­ment. I had no in­ten­tion to do so," he said.

He ar­gued that the gov­ern­ment was one that once they couldn't con­trol you they would "try to de­stroy you".