For­mer Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion chair­man Nizam Mo­hammed has con­demned re­marks by Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad- Bisses­sar on the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion is­sue–and point­ed to what he said was the "un­cer­e­mo­ni­ous re­moval" in 2012 of for­mer po­lice com­mis­sion­er and deputy CoP Dwayne Gibbs and Jack Ewats­ki be­fore their con­tracts end­ed.

In a state­ment yes­ter­day, Mo­hammed said, "I read with ut­ter con­ster­na­tion some re­marks at­trib­uted to the Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar who is call­ing for the res­ig­na­tion of all the mem­bers of the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion. She is quot­ed as say­ing that al­though she does not have ev­i­dence, it is clear that there is po­lit­i­cal in­ter­fer­ence re­gard­ing the ap­point­ment of a Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice.

I re­luc­tant­ly join in the cur­rent im­broglio be­cause many re­mem­ber how I was re­moved by her po­lit­i­cal in­ter­ven­tion when she was Prime Min­is­ter but for­get that I ab­solved my­self by hav­ing the High Court de­clare that my dis­missal by the Pres­i­dent was il­le­gal."

He added, "She ut­tered not a word of re­gret nor did the cronies who sur­round­ed her at the time had the con­science to do any­thing to re­move the stain she at­tempt­ed to place on my good name by abus­ing her po­lit­i­cal au­thor­i­ty and mis­lead­ing the then pli­able Pres­i­dent. A clear case of po­lit­i­cal in­ter­fer­ence of which she com­plains to­day.

Be­ing the so­ci­ety that we are, no one saw the link be­tween the un­cer­e­mo­ni­ous re­moval of Gibbs and Ewats­ki as Com­mis­sion­er and Deputy Com­mis­sion­er be­fore the term of their con­tracts came to an end and my dis­missal as vhair­man of the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion. She would have nev­er got­ten me to do that piece of work for her. The pub­lic should be told about the mil­lions it cost the tax­pay­ers to pay them off for work did not do. They fold­ed their tents and qui­et­ly de­part­ed with­out a mur­mur. Was it the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion or the Per­sad-Bisses­sar Gov­ern­ment who did this piece of po­lit­i­cal in­ter­fer­ence?

The time has come for me to have my say as well. What is re­quired is for the Op­po­si­tion Leader to clear my name. Let her say she made a mis­take and do so pub­licly. On­ly then she will not be seen as en­gag­ing in hypocrisy.

I re­mind her and her then cab­i­net col­leagues that any in­di­vid­ual who ap­pears and tes­ti­fies be­fore the Par­lia­men­tary Com­mit­tee en­joys Par­lia­men­tary Priv­i­lege for what he says. My lawyers didn’t even have to re­fer to this rudi­men­ta­ry rule to suc­ceed be­fore the High Court.

I await the pub­lic apol­o­gy of the Op­po­si­tion Leader."