KINGSTON, Jamaica – Government Senator Abka Fitz-Henley has blasted the Opposition Spokesman on Citizen Security and Productivity, Senator Peter Bunting for what he says is Bunting’s suggestion that policy makers deserve no real credit for the reduction in murders in 2024.

Fitz-Henley, in his contribution to the State of the Nation Debate last Friday, also said Bunting suggested that the statistics which show a near 20 per cent reduction in murders last year “may be inaccurate or at minimum might not be reliable”.

“That posture by the Opposition Spokesman is not appropriate, it is shameful and unbecoming. Imagine the information is available to all who desire to know. The JCF’s (Jamaica Constabulary Force) method of tallying crime statistics has not changed. Same method used now, is what was used when murders increased from approximately 400 in 1989 to over 1,670 under the PNP (People’s National Party) administration of Percival Patterson, same method used to tabulate murders when under the Opposition Spokesman’s (Bunting’s) tenure there was a cumulative six per cent increase, it is the very same method used now that murders are down by 19 per cent,” said Fitz-Henley.

“To now question that process of tabulation when murders are down by 20 per cent under this administration is hypocritical and to show wanton disregard for the hard work of the men and women of the Jamaica Constabulary Force,” Fitz-Henley added.

“I say to the Opposition Spokesman and I am going to caution him to his face – do not allow what appears to be his thirst for political power to allow him to advance diabolical and hypocritical arguments which might be viewed as an open ‘diss’ to the efforts and integrity of the men and women of the Jamaica Constabulary Force. And the move by the Opposition Spokesman and his surrogates to call into question and discredit the decline in murders and how crime statistics are tabulated is of greater embarrassment to them, when you consider that the comments have come from the Opposition Spokesman who when he was Security Minister and murders spiralled, appeared to be on the verge of weeping, begged for divine intervention and said despite the best efforts of the administration of which he was a part, the gains were low and slow,” Fitz-Henley continued.

He acknowledged that “much more needs to be done,” to bring the country’s murder rate down but added that “ This Government has begun to obtain positive outcomes in moving to create a safer society, we should remember their past and reject efforts by the Opposition to get us to go back to the weak leadership that they offered when they had the opportunity to lead this country”.