IF you do not have that sixth sense that is required to practice as a journalist then crapaud smoke your pipe in this town.

The sixth sense is necessary to know when people are trying to set you up, use you to set up someone else, or simply trying to sell you information, thinking that every journalist lives for the big scoop.

Of course, a big story is an exciting thing; especially when the motive behind it is to bring the truth to the people.

So, while this controversy over the signed statement by Vernon Paul, a man whom we have since learnt is from the backwoods of Oropouche -- where nothing good comes from as Sunday Mirror Editor David Millette put it -- rages on, all kinds of chips started falling into place.

And when the name of a big man was exposed, the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle started to come together.

It must have been the mark of a desperate man who tried to plant some information in the newspapers.

Back in November, just about two days after Imam Yasin Abu Bakr was arrested on charges of sedition arising out of his Eid Sermon at the Jamaat al Muslimeen headquarters on Mucurapo Road, someone claimed to have a story for me.

It turned out that the man had it to say that the guns that were used by the cops to nail Bakr on the charges of possession of arms and ammunition originated from the stock that was used by the Muslimeen insurgents in the July 1990 uprising.

Why was that important in the whole mix?

Since I could not figure it out for myself and there was no way of verifying the registration numbers on arms that were taken to court as exhibits, I passed over the information as nothing, really.

Now, my ears started ringing after hearing the assertion from Vernon Paul that the arms and ammunition that were used by the cops actually came in with the shipment that included cocaine and missiles for Sadiq’s water tank.

Was he trying to plant information, to deflect from the original source of the arms?

That was a question that came to mind, naturally.

On the other hand, was the origin of the arms that were allegedly found on the Muslimeen compound (nobody really believes the imam was stupid enough to keep arms there) deliberately planted in Paul’s statement, to lead people to think that the imam was set up by the State?

What we are witnessing here is a continuation of the war between current and former elements of the Muslimeen, jockeying for political favour with the ruling party.

After all, when Bakr was first arrested and the cops started breaking down his office at Mucurapo, tongues were wagging about who conspired with the State to bring the imam to his knees; it was another Muslim, highly favoured by the ruling People’s National Movement.

In the past week, police sources have confirmed that everyone, from the top brass to the lowest rank have been lying about the “investigations” into how the five kilos of cocaine and two useless missiles were found in Sadiq Baksh’s water tank at his home in Palmiste, four years ago when the country was deadlocked with 18 seats shared between both the People’s National Movement and the United National Congress.

Somebody put the cocaine and missiles into the tank; whether the UNC or the PNM.

That alone is the basis for an investigation since, even if the man who’s now singing like a caged bird, Vernon Paul, did not appear on the scene to give a scandalous version of events, the incident warranted a very serious investigation by the cops.

Well, as the very reliable police source explained: “Commissioner Trevor Paul knew that he was dealing with a hot political topic and wished that he could have pushed it under the carpet when word started making the rounds in early December that his namesake was ready to give information.

“You see, he even told the Guardian reporter (Robert Alonzo) that he knew nothing of the matter, without thinking that it would come back to haunt him.

“But even though the Guardian broke the story, they would never write that about the top cop.

“They would find all kinds of nice ways to try to say that.

“It turns out that when the stuff hit the fan, he called a news conference to say that he had a statement from Paul (V), and that he had dispatched two investigators to Caracas to follow up.

“Indeed, most of us here in the hierarchy of the Police Service know Vernon Paul, or know of him, because he has done undercover work for the Organised Crime and Narcotics Unit (OCNU) and of course, was responsible for plucking Deochand Ramdhanie from the house of a big shot in Tucupita.

“We know that he’s a colourful character and have worked with him, but there is not one officer in the Service who is willing to testify to that.

“You should ask a former member of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad who was among the two officers handpicked to go to Venezuela and interview Paul.

“This former AKS man is no longer in the Service, but he knows better than to talk, also.

“Right now there’s a man who worked with the OCNU who has been transferred to Arima and put in uniform, because he tried to speak out about this incident a couple of years ago.

“He fears for his life,” the source explained.

Well, the truth is the commissioner did not even use his commonsense to wait a bit before he announced that he would not investigate the allegations.

Paul was obviously forced to do some damage control, after last Friday’s edition of the TnT Mirror carried a story calling the names of four PNM officials who would have been investigated by the police, as they tried to get to the bottom of the stink.

But he was obviously pushed to declare the case closed, just to clear the name of the PNM big shots that were called.

So the final word from the top cop is that there will be no investigations into the rantings of an unreliable charlatan.

Still, the commissioner is unable to say what, now, is the real status of the investigations into the cocaine and missiles that were found in Sadiq’s water tank.

And after all the bacchanal and games we are back to square one.