The attempt by one of the personal bodyguards of the Prime Minister to directly challenge the authority of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Christopher Nelson on the charge of Causing Grievous Bodily Harm brought against him should not be taken lightly.

Frederick "Balla" Noel is not an ordinary member of the Royal Grenada Police Force (RGPF) but a key player in the inner circles of the Security Detail around Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell. It is clear to us that Balla is not acting alone in what is a clear, bold and dangerous attempt to try and embarrass, disgrace and bring the Office of the DPP into scandal and public ridicule.

GRENADA TODAY sees the hands of the political directorate working hand-in-hand with the so-called Special Prosecutor from Jamaica, Hugh Wildman in this grand scheme to try and remove Nelson from the key post of Director of Public Prosecutions. This crude and vicious plot should be resisted by all Grenadians still committed to the independence of the Judiciary.

If the ruling New National Party (NNP) government of P.M Mitchell and the likes of Wildman and Balla should ever have their own way with an office such as the DPP in the dying days of the regime then the country will be in for a rude awakening.

Wildman is seen in many quarters as the legal "hit man" for the NNP and playing a critical and crucial role in using the law to try and keep opponents in line. The attack on the DPP should not be seen in isolation from the recent blunder of the regime in first amending certain sections of the Prison Rules in order to try and prevent the freedom of three members of the Bernard Coard Gang of Prisoners.

It has been very clear to us many years ago that Prime Minister Mitchell is bent on creating his own brand of dictatorship in the country similar to what happened under the Eric Gairy era and the 1979-83 People's Revolutionary Government (PRG). What is also disturbing to us is the letter that was sent to the DPP by a certain front lawyer for Balla and the regime in which the claim is made that the charge against Balla was laid against him "unknown to the Commissioner of Police".

Is the regime indirectly saying to us that Commissioner Winston James had given someone the assurances that "Balla" would not have been charged for shooting the man in the Bocas. It should be noted that the charge was finally laid on Balla as long as five months after the shooting incident. This newspaper would like Commissioner James to clear the air on reports circulating in the country that the P.M's Security Officer, although charged on an indictable offense is still on the job and not suspended as is the norm in the force.

We say no more on this for the time being. Since the charge was laid against Balla, reports have started to surface in the country that the NNP hierarchy as long ago as 2004 wanted to move against Nelson as the DPP since they were not sure of his political leanings. But what seemed to have triggered the regime into decisive action is the advice offered by the Office of the DPP for the police to charge Balla. Is this key member of the P.M's security detail above the law?

This unfolding episode is making a complete mockery of what the so-called movers and shapers in the society would want the public to believe that every man is equal before the law. GRENADA TODAY has known for years that the leadership of the NNP have no respect for the judiciary and see some of the persons plying the profession as there for the taking. And no one can really blame Prime Minister Mitchell and Company for adopting this approach to the legal profession since some of their own members are prepared to sell their souls for a few dollars more in waiting on the regime for some paper work to earn a few dollars.

How can Dr. Mitchell not think otherwise about lawyers when he was able to get a sitting Judge to try and recruit another lawyer to run for him in the Sister Isle of Carriacou and Petite Martinique? If anybody wants to doubt us on this claim then go and ask the current Deputy Political Leader of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), George Prime for the name of the sitting judge who had tried to recruit him for the NNP Political Leader before he joined the Congress party.

Could anyone expect to have appeared before this "recruiting NNP judge" of the high court in a case against the P.M and the government and expect to win against them? And the jokers in Grenada want to push this country away from the British Privy Council in London in an effort to try and make the Caribbean Court of Appeal the final arbiter of legal matters in our part of the world.

The attack on the Office of the DPP by the current political bosses in Grenada has convinced us even more that the Caribbean Court of Appeal idea should be resisted as long as possible by those who want to protect the independence of the judiciary in the English-speaking Caribbean.

The Christopher Nelson episode is living testimony to this tendency by tin god politicians in the Caribbean to have their own way with the judiciary.