Published 27 July 2017
Buckie Got It, St. Kitts and Nevis News
Use of armed police to deliver dismissal letter to Dr. Patrick Martin an abuse of power, intimidation
BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, JULY 27TH 2017 – The use of two uniformed police officers, one armed – to deliver a letter to the home of the Federation’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Patrick Martin, terminating his services with immediate effect “is an act of intimidation and an abuse of power.”
“Today in St. Kitts and Nevis, the crime rate is very high, irrespective of the misleading statements from Prime Minister and Minister of National Security, Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris. You going to take two police officers to deliver a notification letter of termination to the CMO. Are we serious about fighting crime?,” asked caretaker for St. Christopher 8, Dr. Terrance Drew.
He said those two officers (one of whom was armed) “should have been out on the beat preventing or resolving crime.”
“There continues to be numerous complaints from our people that the police are not responding to their calls for assistance. Persons are being robbed. Victims of crimes just do not report these acts to the police,” said Dr. Drew.
He said amidst complaints of a shortage of police officers, “the human resources of the police should be use properly.”
Dr. Patrick Martin is not a threat to the security of the country.
“He is not a criminal. His only ‘crime’ perceived by the government was to stop an illegal stem cell project which began at the J. N. France General Hospital without authorisation and in violation of the Medical Act,” said Dr. Drew.
Labour Party chairperson and Parliamentary Representative for St. Christopher 2 (Central Basseterre), Hon. Marcella Liburd said the use of the police officers to deliver the letter to Dr. Martin by the Office of the Prime Minister is “an abuse of power.”
She noted that last June Dr. Martin was sent on pre-retirement leave and that leave would have expired in November this year, but on Friday 14th July 2017, he receives a second letter informing him he has been retired with immediate effect.
“If he is to officially retire in November – three weeks from now – what could cause the Office of the Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris to send a letter delivered by two police officers informing him he was retired with immediate effect? The use of the police officers is an act of intimidation. It is an abuse of power,” said Liburd.
“This is not the job of the police,” said Ms. Liburd, who pointed to recent instances of the use of police officers to intimidate persons.
“Police were used by Mr. Osbert De Souza. the Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister to dismiss civil servants from the Constituency Empowerment Office and Government Headquarters,” said Liburd.
Dr. Martin incurred the wrath of Prime Minister Harris’ Government when he was hastily sent on vacation and pre-retirement leave on June 16th 2016 when he stopped an illegal Stem Cell Research Project operating at the Private Ward of the J. N. France General Hospital on June 13th 2016, without his approval and had taken measures to bring it to an end.
Minister of Health Hon. Eugene Hamilton confirmed in an interview that a stem cell research project was underway at the JNF Hospital with Cabinet approval, but he was contradicted by Minister of State in the Ministry of Health, Sen. the Hon. Wendy Phipps who in a radio address said “neither the Ministry of Health or the JNF General Hospital is engaged in any stem cell project.”
A hospital document posted on FaceBook indicated that at a June 8th meeting of Staff Nurses and co-chaired by Matron Sonia Daley-Findlay, Director of Institutional Nursing Services, and Shirley Ferlance, Assistant Director of Institutional Nursing Services, it was discussed that “three rooms from the private ward will be used to facilitate the Regenerative Stem Cell Research which should begin Monday 13th June 2016.”
The stem cell operation involved Canadian billionaire Peter Nygard, the hard-partying retail tycoon.
