Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar has slammed the government for its silence throughout Wednesday’s power outage, particularly Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley as head of the National Security Council.

Most areas in Trinidad were without power for roughly 12 hours after a “major disturbance” occurred at 12:50pm, according to the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission.

“The extensive and prolonged outage led to a state of unease amongst the population, over fears of increased crime as darkness descended. We commend the members of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service for their increased vigilance during the incident,” Persad Bissessar said.

“The Government however remained completely silent during the entire ordeal, providing no leadership. A late statement from Public Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales was inadequate, and a clear attempt to shift the blame from himself. Keith Rowley, the person in charge of the National Security Council, had nothing to say, giving no word of assurance to citizens as to what measures were being put in place to resolve the issue and to ensure safety and security,” she added.

The Opposition Leader also called for Wednesday’s failure to be the subject of an independent public inquiry.

“This incident in which hundreds of thousands of people were cut off from electricity, water and phone services for 12 hours must be thoroughly investigated, and the members of this PNM Government must not attempt to evade responsibility,” she said.