Rowley not changing his mind about assassination plot

Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley is standing firm on his position that Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar overplayed the situation involving an alleged plot to kill her and three top cabinet members.

Rowley has faced severe criticism since his statements on Friday. Rowley told the Express newspaper he is not questioning the fact that the Police are investigating the matter. "I never doubted that the Police were conducting an investigation," he said.

However he said his point has been and remains that he is not convinced that the Prime Minister became a target because of her crackdown on criminals through the State of Emergency.

"Having been told of a threat that is being investigated, she immediately converted it into a political diatribe of justification for an emergency which had not yet been properly explained," Rowley told the paper.

"I have not heard a police officer...come out and say that," he said.

Rowley insisted that police did not give him any "secret information" when he met with them on Friday on instructions from the Prime Minister.

"The information given to me by the Police as to the basis for this arrival at an assassination plot was largely information that was already in the public domain," he said. 

He wanted to know how the Prime Minister concluded that she was the target because she disrupted people's drug trade and she is hitting them in their pockets.