By: Spokesman Newsroom

BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (Friday 10th August 2018) – A controversial issue allegedly surrounding the police force and the Ministry of National Security has stirred a hot public discussion about the ‘Mable Richards’ and ‘Andre Liburd’ Facebook characters with two well-known political and social commentators Terry Adams and Austin Edinborough giving their views on the matter this week.

Both men expressed their opinions while calling into Freedom ‘Issues’ programme on Wednesday 8th August during the St.Kitts-Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP)-sponsored weekly featuring opposition leader Dr. Denzil Douglas who addressed the alleged scandalous subject.

“When social media characters can openly say that drugs were stolen from the exhibit room where they are locked down, and make statements that other police officers have been involved in this theft of drugs on hold by the police for a trial in the future then you must understand the severity, the depth and the width of the crisis that we have in our police force, in the Ministry of National Security and in our country on a whole,” Douglas- who is the immediate former Prime Minister and Minister of National Security- has said about the alleged matter.

As gathered, the ‘Mable Richards’ and ‘Andre Liburd’ social media accounts have made a number of allegations in recent statements which gave way to the controversial topic.

Adams has described the alleged issue “as a troubling, troubling situation as it relates to national security…”

“I understand your concern because what we are dealing with and talking about is the two most important and critical law enforcement agency of the government who are under suspicion…,” he said to Dr. Douglas.

According to Adams: “I am in total agreement with you; the Prime Minister must not allow social media just to run with this and then believe it’s going to go away because we have a three-day and seven-day syndrome.”

He further indicated that the Advisor in the Ministry of National Security must set out to investigate the matter [and then] report to the honourable Prime Minister and then the honourable Prime Minister reports to the country…”
Adams claimed that he has been talked about on the two particular Facebook accounts.

“I get a lot of blows from Andre and Mable. I have never been on the Facebook; I don’t know what it’s like. Most of the times I’ve received the information and these posts is when people forward them to me but I have my big suspicion as to who is Andre Liburd [and] as to who is Mable Richards because they have already exposed themselves.”
Speaking on the issue after Adams had his say, Edinborough who is also a well-known political activist and SKNLP spokesperson- remarked: “This post…Mable Richards is coming out with it. We have had no statement from the police. We have had no statement from the Ministry of National Security which is run by Dr. Timothy Harris. We have had nothing said from the office of the Attorney General with respect to this and we have had nothing from the Ministry of Information Technology in respect of whether or not the statement is true and what would be done if it is fake.”

He also talked about recent police press releases in St.Kitts, about two persons being charged in respect to disseminating false information.
“It stands therefore that communications can be tracked even if an official complaint was made in those matters investigations had to be made to connect the persons the persons to the device used. If for some reason Mable Richards is a pseudonym; they don’t know who the person is per say, the technology is there to determine which computer, whose computer- because I have two computers that have the same IP address and every now and then I get some information that have two computers and one IP address on it- so therefore the technology is there to say who these persons are and which and what device and computer they’re using.”

Edinborough added: “The mere fact that such an allegation has been made about our police force- I’m not talking about the personal attacks that are in there then if it is not true, that press release should have been out a long time ago stating that it is not true and indicating that Mable Richards would be sought and brought to justice. If it is true then how does Mable Richards get the information before the police makes a press release or the Ministry of National Security? How?!”

In calling for the resignation of three public officials without directly calling their names, he went on to say “You have a situation where somebody-whether it’s a phony person or whatever who is posting on Facebook making real serious allegations about the police and implicating senior police officers. The Ministry of National Security has made no statement, the minister of Information and technology has said nothing with respect investigating where this inform came from and who is responsible for putting it to the public?…We in St.Kitts and Nevis need to take a stance.”