ATTORNEY Nyree Alfonso said on June 10 that Minister of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds failed to say sorry when he withdrew his false claim that firearms dealer Towfeek Ali had had his records stolen and did not report this theft to police.
Alfonso is Ali’s wife and a director in his firm – the Firearms Training Institute. Alfonso told Newsday on June 10 she is weighing her legal options.
At a June 4 briefing at his ministry after the Gonzales quadruple killings, Hind said the government’s anti-crime efforts were being thwarted.
Accusing authorised gun dealers of being profit-driven, and alleging a diversion of legal firearms into criminal hands, Hinds wrongly claimed that a police affidavit relating to a 2022 police audit of Ali’s businessplace had reported him (Ali) as saying his records had been stolen.
Later on June 4, after Hinds’ press conferece, Alfonso in an interview with Newsday, flatly denied such claim saying it was “a figment of a minister’s beleaguered psyche.”
According to a story published in Newsday, Alfonso said, “No dealer has been charged, yet the streets are awash with blood. It is nothing to do with the legal dealers.”
On June 5, Hinds in a brief press release admitted, “As part of my contribution to the media, I suggested that Mr Towfeek Ali was identified in a court affidavit as the gun dealer who was unable to produce his records when required to do so by the police, explained that the said records were stolen, and that no report was made to the police.
“I here state that that aspect of my statement was erroneous, as Mr Ali was not identified in the court document, as the dealer.
“The statement therefore, being erroneous, is hereby withdrawn.”
But on June 10, Alfonso told Newsday, “He did not issue an apology, which I think was the human and decent thing to do.”
She said Hinds got it wrong, as Ali was not guilty of what he (the minister) had said. Alfonso did not know if some other dealer had been culpable regarding records being stolen and this act not being reported to police.
“But I am 100 per cent certain – because we are in court three times over with the Commissioner of Police (CoP) – there is no affidavit in which any such allegation was made (against Ali).
“I cannot speak for any other dealer but I can speak with great definitiveness: It’s not Towfeek Ali and not the Firearms Training Institute.
Alfonso continued, “I would have expected the decent thing to do was identify you made a mistake, which he (Hinds) has done, and to apologise. We were swarmed with phone calls and WhatsApp (messages).
“We don’t sell toolum or salt prunes. Imagine you are a customer of the Firearms Training Institute, as many people are for decades, and a declaration is made that the person you purchased your firearm from, and who you come to and train on their range and have your guns cleaned or repaired or serviced, that that person is doing something wrong.
“That is a very significant allegation to make.”
Alfonso said Hinds’ error was worsened by the fact he was suppos
