A num­ber of com­mu­ni­ty groups in Orop­une have come out in de­fence of for­mer jour­nal­ist Colleen Hold­er.

Ac­cord­ing to me­dia re­ports, Hold­er said she had re­ceived threats on her life and these threats came days af­ter she told the me­dia that she was not hap­py about con­di­tions in Orop­une Gar­dens, Pi­ar­co.

A me­dia state­ment signed by the Orop­une Gar­dens Com­mu­ni­ty Group, the Orop­une Po­lice Youth Club, the Orop­une Vil­lage Coun­cil, the Orop­une Gar­dens Se­cu­ri­ty Group, Orop­une Res­i­dents and Friends, the Fourth Av­enue Youth Coun­cil and Unit­ed We Stand NGO strong­ly con­demned “threats” made against Hold­er.

“It is with great con­ster­na­tion that we the res­i­dents of Orop­une Gar­dens, Pi­ar­co, have learnt of the threats made to Colleen Hold­er who is a much-ap­pre­ci­at­ed stal­wart in our com­mu­ni­ty. That cer­tain mis­cre­ants have sin­gled out Ms Hold­er for in­tim­i­da­tion is whol­ly un­ac­cept­able.”

The state­ment al­so said that Hold­er has the com­mu­ni­ty’s “un­wa­ver­ing” sup­port.

“As a com­mu­ni­ty, our non-tol­er­ance of in­tim­i­da­tion and ha­rass­ment is un­equiv­o­cal. Ms Hold­er has our un­wa­ver­ing sup­port and no re­source will be spared to pur­sue and ap­pre­hend the cul­prits.”

The state­ment con­clud­ed by say­ing that the po­lice are aware of the sit­u­a­tion and they are deal­ing with it.

“The Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty and the Po­lice Ser­vice of T&T are abreast of this is­sue and have al­so pledged their sup­port in this im­por­tant mat­ter of se­cu­ri­ty.”