Shannon must go - Allister
14 September 2010
Responding to the Wright Inquiry Report TUV Leader Jim Allister QC said:-
“The monumental failings in the Maze, confirmed in today’s report, including the presence of murder weapons, are the direct result of the NIO surrender of the Maze to terrorist control. They are shocking indictments which must not go unpunished. Mere apology and regret will not suffice.
“With the then head of the Prison Service now head of a Stormont Department, as Permanent Secretary of DEL, I call for his removal. How else can effective disapproval of what went on in the Maze, under his stewardship, be demonstrated?
“The politically-driven handover of control of the blocks to the prisoners made this murder possible. The NIO was well warned of their folly but under the leadership of Mr Shannon they persisted. In consequence of this report I believe his position in high public office is untenable.
“There is also a salutary lesson for the present day. Again, republican terrorists are demanding the run of the wings in Maghaberry and the recent agreement to reduce searches and expand ‘free-flow movements’ may see us head down the same slippery slope towards terrorist control. I, for one, have no confidence that David Ford has any more wit and capacity to withstand such folly than Adam Ingram had.
“As to the finding of no collusion, I must say I detect a sleight of hand at work in that this conclusion was only possible because Lord Maclean refined and redrafted the definition on collusion handed down by Judge Corey, leading to the ludicrous situation that different definitions apply to different inquiries. On the basis of the findings that intelligence was not passed on, that documentary evidence was destroyed and that multiple coincidences are unexplained, this by the Corey definition, with its emphasis on inaction and omissions, was collusion.”
