PM’s security risk to be assessed

There may be some changes made to the Prime Minister’s security detail, following an incident which occurred in Barbados on Sunday.{{more}}

Dr Ralph Gonsalves said last Sunday, moments before disembarking a LIAT aircraft, he was accosted by two men who identified themselves as BBC journalists.

The Prime Minister said that the men accosted him just as he was about to retrieve his luggage and leave the aircraft.

“As soon as we arrived in Barbados and I was getting my luggage from the top drawer of the plane, one came with a camera and the other one with a tape recorder,” he said.

Gonsalves, while speaking on a morning talk show on Tuesday, via telephone from Haiti, made it clear that security was something that he was going to address with those responsible for his security.

“But I must say that I’m tough headed on this question,” he said, adding that while doing his duties at home, he repeatedly makes requests of his personal security detail not to surround him.

However, while it is not the norm for security to travel with the prime minister, he said that they remind him that there is nothing that he can do to prevent them from providing protection.

“That’s their duty – that’s what the Commissioner tells me; they ask how can you assess your security risk? We have to assess that security risk,” the Prime Minister said.(DD)