The president of Bermuda General Truckers' Association claims he was wrongly arrested for threatening behaviour after he told Deputy Premier Paula Cox she should resign.

Richard Foggo has called a public meeting of his members this evening to tell them what happened after he met the Finance Minister in her office and saw her later the same day at a PLP meeting. He has also told Bermuda Police Service he wants to file a complaint because he does not think officers had grounds to question him.

Mr. Foggo was granted a face-to-face meeting with Ms Cox — one of three MPs vying to become PLP leader — on September 15. During their discussion, he suggested she step down due to her handling of the country's finances.

He also criticised the way Premier Ewart Brown had treated truckers and referred to a bullet sent to Dr. Brown during the last election.

That evening, Mr. Foggo attended a PLP constituency meeting in Hamilton Parish where Ms Cox was giving a presentation.

Police officers showed up at the meeting at Francis Patton School when Mr. Foggo stood up and said he had a message to deliver "from Almighty God".

They asked the 50-year-old self-employed trucker to come for questioning and he complied. He was taken to hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, where a doctor declared that he was cooperative, calm and had no thoughts to harm himself or others, according to paperwork shown to The Royal Gazette.

Mr. Foggo was then held overnight in a cell at Hamilton Police Station and quizzed by two detectives the next morning about the remarks he made during his one-on-one meeting with Ms Cox.

Mr. Foggo shared DVD footage of the Police interview with this newspaper yesterday and the recording reveals that, during his appointment with Ms Cox, he brought up the bullet sent in the mail to Dr. Brown in December 2007.

The Zion Contracting Company CEO told detectives he advised the Deputy Premier that he didn't send the bullet but did send Dr. Brown a "scud" with a "heat seeker" on it — an apparent reference to a scud missile.

He told the detectives that though he was unhappy with the way Dr. Brown had treated truckers he did not mean any harm and had no intention of bringing violence into the lives of the Premier or Ms Cox.

The detectives explained to him that his words could have been misinterpreted, that it was a sensitive time due to the PLP leadership contest and that they had a duty to ensure everything was OK.

Mr. Foggo was released after the interview and Police have not charged him with any offence.

Ms Cox told The Royal Gazette yesterday: "I have lodged no complaint."

She did not elaborate but advised this newspaper to contact the Police and the organisers of the September 15 PLP meeting.

Hamilton East PLP branch chairman Pastor Leroy Bean said Mr. Foggo did nothing at the evening meeting that would have prompted an arrest and that he didn't know who called Police.

"He did not do anything wrong; not to my knowledge. If anything happened, it definitely wasn't in that meeting."

Norris Burgess, who was at the evening meeting, said he was asked to help escort Mr. Foggo out of the room.

He said Mr. Foggo was speaking but was taking his time getting to the point and some audience members got irritated. "I still don't know what the problem is," said Mr. Burgess. "He had a Bible there. There was nothing I deemed he said that was disrespectful. He just took too long to say what he was going to say.

"I was very surprised that the Police came to arrest him. I know him as a very calm, very studious type of person and, of late, very much a guy who is into the Bible."

Police Commissioner Michael DeSilva would not comment on the specifics of the case last night.

He said people arrested by Police were released without charge from time to time — but that didn't make the original arrest unlawful, so long as officers had good grounds to make the arrest.

"Sometimes it is because there is not enough evidence to support a court charge and sometimes it is because the victim does not wish to make a formal complaint, for a variety of reasons," he said.

"In each of these cases, we are unable to provide specific information on the individuals concerned as the matter does not become a public record unless they are charged by the court.

"If a person in this type of situation feels aggrieved by our action, then they have a legal recourse open to them and the courts can decide if the Police have acted properly."

• Tonight's meeting of Bermuda General Truckers' Association is at 7 p.m. at Bailey's Bay Cricket Club.