The Commissioner of Police in St. Vincent and the Grenadines on Monday refuted a Grenada media report that a Vincentian vessel carrying food and cooking gas had been turned away from the tri-island nation on Sunday.
Colin John refuted The New Today article, “Grenada Coast Guard intercepts boat from SVG with food supplies for Petite Martinique”.
“On Monday April 20, 2020, Commissioner John held talks with his Grenadian counterpart, Commissioner of Police, Mr. Edwin Martin and Mr. Brenton Cain, Commander of SVG Coast Guard on the matter at hand.
“Commissioner John would, therefore, like to inform the general public that according to all available information and intelligence, no such incident has occurred,” the Police Public Relations Office said in a statement.
Separately, on Monday, the Royal Grenada Police Force dismissed the media report as “absolutely false”.
“I want to state here that this is absolutely false. I have spent a number of time speaking to the commanders of Carriacou and our Coast Guard in an effort to verify this issue over and over again…” Martin said.
“This is false and, again, I call on individuals to be a bit more responsible in how we treat with social media and the posting of information,” the Grenada police chief further stated.
The New Today report came amidst tension between St. George’s and Kingstown after Prime Minister of Grenada Keith Mitchell reminded his nationals that the country’s borders are closed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In its report, The New Today gave no information about the vessel that was allegedly turned back by the Grenada Coast Guard, but said a source familiar with the incident said that the Vincentian boat was stopped short of landing in Petite Martinique.
There’s hardly ever smoke without fire. Let’s try to find out what really happened. Did a boat from SVG go to PSV with supplies for Petite Martinique? We’re the PM boats turned back after picking up the supplies? Let’s get past the semantics and look for the truth.