A 25-year-old Sea Lots man, whom police arrested Thursday and released Friday warning him not to return to the area due to death threats against him, was killed yesterday evening.

According to police reports, around 6.30 pm a man with his face covered with a white jersey approached Ronnie “Mad Dog” Hogan as he stood along Pioneer Drive with Mabel Edwards, 65. The gunman opened fire, fatally wounding Hogan and hitting Edwards in the left leg.

Police said Hogan had received numerous death threats and during his time in custody they warned him about returning to Sea Lots. He was out on bail for the shooting of a police officer earlier this year.

Edwards was warded in a stable condition at hospital last evening. Prior to yesterday’s shooting, Sea Lots, a known crime hotspot, had several months of relative peace.

The vetting process to enter the Police Service is being called into question after the police found that an officer who allegedly had an outstanding warrant for a prostitution charge ten years ago was serving as a Special Reserve Police officer.

According to police sources, the officer, Shireen Khan, a serving member of the Police Service for the past seven years, was last attached to Interpol as she is fluent in Mandarin (Chinese language). It was there that a senior officer decided to do a thorough investigation on the officer and allegedly found that she had an arrest warrant for prostitution that was issued in 1996 after she was charged the previous year. Khan appeared before a Port-of-Spain magistrate on Thursday and was granted $15,000 bail to re-appear in court on December 8.

In a telephone interview, head of the Police Service Social and Welfare Association, Insp Michael Seales, said something has to be done with regards to the vetting of potential officers in the future.

He added that those seeking to join the service either as an SRP or a regular member should have their faces publicised in the media so that there will be a nationwide input on the potential officers.

Seales said, “What we want is for the Commissioner of Police to do a proper investigation into how this officer was allowed to enter the Police Service. The association is a bit baffled. We don’t want to look at that person alone but who would have done that whole recruitment because everyone who played a part had a right to discover that. The person who did the recruitment they must pay the price for dropping the ball on this. What did they know? What did they do?”

Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams when contacted said he did not have the full details regarding the alleged incident involving Khan but has requested it and will respond when he has the information.

“I gave a public commitment to focus on cleaning out the Police Service and any officer who is involved in any corrupt illegal or any criminal conduct. So that is what we are on a mission to do. It is tough business but it is important business and that is what I have set about focusing on. I do hope very soon I will be in a better position to say that the Police Service has very few if any corrupt officers involved in criminal activity,” Williams said.

On November 16, Williams called on the public to keep the faith in the T&T Police Service as he promised to root out all rogue officers. He added that there were 150 officers before the courts for various offences.

Since then there were others charged including Khan and four arrested, three for purportedly extorting monies from an alleged pimp and one arrested yesterday after he allegedly sold car parts from a derelict police vehicle at a police station in the Central Division.

Williams said, “The Professional Standards Bureau (the policing unit in charge of investigating, arresting and charging rogue officers) have a special mandate and we are improving their manpower slowly because we have to look at quality and not quantity and that is where our challenge is. We need the best quality to go there and it is not about adding members. To enter there is an additional polygraph test that must be done. There is no obligation for a serving member to undergo a polygraph examination, (but) when you have to go to the PSB and other specialist units you have to undergo a polygraph examination.

“You could choose not to undergo the polygraph because that is not required under the law but you will not be assigned to the unit. Out of the last negotiations we were able to get an additional $1,000 to operate a special allowance as an incentive to join the service.”

Regarding body cameras for his officers, Williams said he is strapped for cash to outfit each officer but come next year the pilot project that began in Central Division this year will be expanded. He did not say how many divisions but added that it will not be for the entire country. He added that, hopefully, in the 2018 budgetary allocation there will be enough to outfit his officers with body cameras.

Following the shooting death of Anton “Bready” Mitchell at the hands of police under what have been deemed “questionable circumstances” on November 24, the issue of body cameras resurfaced along with dashboard cameras.

Williams said that he has requested the footage from the body cameras at the scene of Mitchell’s shooting after residents protested and claimed that he was murdered by crooked cops in the Central Division.

Williams said that some of the officers around at the time were reportedly wearing their body cameras which were affixed to either their caps or sunglasses. The T&T Guardian has been told, however, that the officers directly involved in the shooting were not wearing the equipment.

Three male security guards attached to the Couva District Health Facility, are being investigated by the Couva Police for assaulting a patient and his wife.

This follows a claim by Shafeez Hosein that he and his common-law-wife, Beatrice Ramsumair, were not only assaulted by the guards but were chased from the institution without receiving treatment for a wound to his foot.

Hosein, 44, of Powdery Road, Preysal Village, Couva, said the Couva Police officers also refused to take his report of assault, because he was bleeding and they did not want him to mess up the station’s floor.

Now Hosein is calling on both Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh and Acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams to launch an investigation and take separate action against those guards and officers. In an interview with the Guardian yesterday, Hosein said the drama unfolded on November 23, when he received a deep gash to his right foot.

Accompanied by Ramsumair, Hosein said he went to the Couva hospital around 3 pm to seek treatment for the wound which was bleeding, but eight hours later he had received no medical attention.

As he began feeling weak from the loss of blood, his wife started speaking loudly about his lack of attention.

“My wife was not cursing or anything like that, she was just saying we here so long and not body attending to me. Three male guards came and started pushing her and started to wring up her hand.”

Hosein said he attempted to intervene to help his wife when the officers turned on him and started kicking him on his bleeding foot.

“Then they shove me out of the hospital and tell me don’t come back.”

With both him and his wife in pain, he said they walked to the nearby police station, but the officers on duty refused to take his report when they got there close to midnight.

“The officer said that is not their work and don’t bother to come into the station because my foot bleeding and I would mess up the station.”

Hosein said it was raining heavily but he and his wife left the station and waited until 1am when they got a vehicle to take them to the Chaguanas Health Facility.

“The staff there were very kind and they attended to me and gave me a letter to go to the San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH) for an X-ray the next day. On November 24, Hosein said he went to the San Fernando Police Station to report what had transpired the evening before and the Sergeant at the station called Couva and instructed them to take his report.

He also reported the matter to his Member of Parliament Dr Bhoe Tewarie who has promised to take up the matter with his parliamentary colleague Deyalsingh.

Hosein, who is still walking with a limp from the beating he received, said he was horrified by the treatment meted out to him both at the hospital and Couva police station.

“I went to the hospital for help for bacchanal and licks. And why did they have to hit the woman. She was just exercising her right to talk.”

WPC Cadogan is conducting investigations.

Citing a litany of infrastructural woes at denominational schools and violence at two Government-run schools, Education Minister Anthony Garcia has called on school boards to take more responsibility for their schools.

Speaking at the T&T Unified Teachers Association’s 37th annual conference of delegates held at Paria Suites in La Romaine yesterday, Garcia said, “If you own the schools, you have the responsibility to ensure that it operates to the best of its ability.”

Saying a meeting will be held with the Association of Denominational Schools very early in 2017, Garcia said, “The boards have been doing a fantastic job in our education system but I am not always satisfied with the role of the boards because if you claim ownership of the schools, you cannot stand aside your responsibility.”

He explained, “What I have noticed over the last few months is that where schools are experiencing difficulties, the boards seem to demit, expecting the Ministry of Education to pick up the slack in all aspects of its operation.”

The Tobago House of Assembly bill to amend the Constitution to accord Self-Government to Tobago will be presented in Parliament shortly and there is already concerns over one of its major provisions—the creation of a People’s House.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said the legislation was expected to be presented in the Parliament on December 16.

The legislation was prepared after discussions were held by a team led by Chief Secretary Orville London and included former chief secretary Hochoy Charles.

It is expected to give the people of the island more autonomy.

One of the controversial provisions in the bill was the creation of a People’s House in the Tobago House of Assembly. The legislation provides for the creation of the new House so there will be the Chamber made up of the elected assemblymen and the People’s House, which will be appointed by the ruling party in the THA.

Former head of the public service, Reginald Dumas, said he was very concerned about that matter as the People’s House was to be appointed by the ruling party in the THA.

Charles is distancing himself from that document and is insisting that it be taken back to the people for consultations.

Charles and London were unavailable for comment when the T&T Guardian attempted to reach them.

Dumas said he read part of the bill , but “was not able to conclude my reading of it because much of what I was seeing was absurd.”

He also raised concerns about the proposed People’s House for the Assembly, which he added , was to be similar to the Senate in Port-of-Spain. He said the provision for the ruling party in the Assembly to choose the members of the People’s House was “absurd (and) that flies in the face of democracy. How could you call that a People’s House if the House is being selected by the Lower House.” He said he was concerned that the proposal did not mention that the members were to represent specific interests. Dumas said he “simply put it aside because the document struck me as (being) increasingly absurd.”

Dumas said what was worse was that former THA chief secretary Hochoy Charles, who was party of the Tobago Forum of Political parties, had distanced himself from it.

Other members of the forum were Rennie Dumas, Neil Wilson and London, who were all from the PNM. He said Charles insisted that the bill should be discussed with the people of the island.

Dumas said that was a clear indication that the legislation was not discussed with people of Tobago. Dumas insisted: “The average person in Tobago has never seen this bill.”

He said the discussion held by the forum were not detailed . Dumas said the lack of consultations with the people of Tobago “undermines the whole credibility of thing in the first place

Dumas said he did not see how many members will comprise the People’s House.

Rowley said the date for the THA election is to be announced by President Anthony Carmona. He said that will be done with the required consultations with the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. The assembly was dissolved in October. Rowley said the polls must be held by the first week of February next year. He said the EBC report on the THA elections will also be taken to Parliament shortly and when approved the date will be announced.

There are 12 electoral districts on the island. The PNM won all districts in the 2013 THA elections.

Dumas said he felt the PNM will win again in 2017 but he hoped there would be an Opposition to share a different view. He said the parties on the island opposed to the PNM were “fragmented and does not resonate with the people.”

Dumas said: “What we have now is a monolith.”

Dumas said he expects the new party formed by PSA leader Watson Duke to be the only won to pose a challenge to the PNM in eastern districts.

The Ministry of Health has reaffirmed its commitment to the local fight against HIV/Aids by signalling intentions to access funding set aside by the US Government through the President’s Emergency Plan For Aids Relief (PEPFAR) to assist countries globally and help save the lives of those suffering from the disease.

Disclosing this during a press conference at the Ministry of Health, Port-of-Spain, yesterday, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said what was required had now transcended the ministry’s reach.

He said it needed a national, holistic and concerted effort by all stakeholders, hence its natural return to the Office of the Prime Minister which spearheaded the public drive on Thursday to educate and increase awareness among the masses.

Revealing that T&T had signed onto the UN Aids 90-90-90 challenge to achieve certain goals by 2020, Deyalsingh said it included ensuring that 90 per cent of a country’s population would know their status by that date; of which 90 per cent should be on anti-retroviral drugs if they are confirmed; and 90 per cent of this number should have their viral load down to be considered HIV/Aids free.

Pledging to work with local and international stakeholders to fund efforts, Deyalsingh said, “We will need every dollar in the fight against HIV/Aids.”

Commending the workers attached to the Queen’s Park Counselling Centre (QPCC), Deyalsingh said the fight was kept alive by these dedicated persons all through the year.

Deputy Director, HIV/Aids Coordinating Unit, Dr Ayanna Sebro confirmed the QPCC’s strategic goals were aligned with the UN goals.

Adding that they had recorded a 15 per cent decline in new cases, she said they were also aiming to reduce mother-to-child transmission and increase the number of persons accessing anti-retroviral drugs.

With 11,500 persons confirmed to be living with the virus in T&T, Sebro said there were now 64 testing sites scattered across both islands.

She later said the male-to-female ratio of new cases was equal, with the majority of cases presenting in persons between the ages of 15 and 49.

Assuring the nation that availability of anti-retroviral drugs was on the ministry’s priority list for the national formulary, Deyalsingh said 40 per cent of the ministry’s drugs budget went towards procuring oncology medicine while the second major allocation in the budget was assigned to HIV/Aids.

He said efforts to standardise the drugs being prescribed could help Government save TT $100 million, which could be sustained if they sourced the medication through Paho.

ABOUT PEPFAR

The US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR) is the US Government initiative to help save the lives of those suffering from HIV/Aids around the world.

This historic commitment is the largest by any nation to combat a single disease internationally

AWAITING RESULTS

Minister Deyalsingh said they are still awaiting results to confirm if T&T had in fact recorded its second birth of a baby diagnosed with microcephaly which could be directly linked to the Zika virus.

He confirmed the birth earlier this week but yesterday said they were yet to receive confirmed blood reports on whether or not it was as a result of Zika or due to genetic factors.

Deyalsingh said they were collaborating with the Caribbean Public Health Agency on the case. He promised to update the nation when the results were received.

Dr James Armstrong, the president of the Joint Consultative Council for the Construction Industry (JCC), is urging the Government to “let good sense prevail” and not take the Invaders Bay Development Project to the country’s highest appellate court.

He said legal fees for the matter being heard at the Privy Council are expected to cost millions of dollars and would be a further unnecessary financial burden on taxpayers.

Two weeks ago, Appeal Court Justices Nolan Bureaux, Gregory Smith and Peter Rajkumar granted leave to the State to challenge two previous court rulings which found that the Ministry of Planning and Development’s decision to not make public any legal opinions it received relative to the award of the project was null, void and of no effect.

Armstrong said last week they were disappointed that the matter was going to the Privy Council “because as you are aware the JCC won the matter on two occasions and the last occasion being the Appeal Court and it is something that we expected the present Government would have accepted and leave it as a settled court matter, but they have decided to go to the Privy Council and we are very concerned by that, we are disappointed by that because clearly going to the Privy Council is going to require significant amounts of resources which we have already extended.”

He said there are financial constraints as far as the JCC is concerned. “It is difficult to really match the State in terms of the financial outlay that would be required to contest this further. So since we are really confident that the case was decided correctly, although it was a split decision (by the Appeal Court), we were really hoping that good sense would prevail and that the matter would have been closed, so that is where we are at right now.”

The JCC was represented by Senior Counsel Gilbert Peterson, while Russell Martineau, SC, appeared for the State.

Armstrong said paying for a senior counsel to represent the JCC in London would be exorbitant.

“It (the matter going to the Privy Council) is not something that we expected really but I don’t know that there is any new substantive material or issues. It is the same case really and what we were contesting then and what the then opposition (now the PNM Government) was supporting is no different today really, so we don’t quite understand why they are going to appeal it further.

Armstrong said the JCC would adopt a wait-and-see approach to the matter.

“As you are aware with going to the Privy Council there are certain conditions that the Appeal Court here would have set out that the State would have to meet. So I don’t know whether they would meet all those requirements so it is something that we would have to wait and see whether it actually gets to the Privy Council and we are hoping that good sense would prevail,” Armstrong said.

Maharaj: JCC can get legal help

Senior Counsel Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj who has assisted several people in the region in having their appeals heard before the Privy Council said he was certain the JCC would be able to get legal representation in the matter at minimal cost.

“I know of institutions and law firms in the United Kingdom which would assist litigants in Trinidad and Tobago in a matter like what the JCC has, in having the matter done before the Privy Council. And the JCC would have to pay minimal costs in that way,” Maharaj said.

There is no secrecy, it’s misinformation—Tewarie

Former Planning minister under the People’s Partnership administration Dr Bhoe Tewarie said a lot of misinformation was being spread about the billion-dollar Invaders Bay project.

In 2014 Tewarie had said the land was valued $1.2 billion. The value of the land has now risen to over $1.5 billion.

“There was no issue of disclosure in the project. There was no issue of us trying to hide anything and that is the misinformation that is being spread that we were trying to hide something,” Tewarie said last week

“What we were contesting was whether the advice of an attorney to his or her client, which is generally regarded as privileged information, is subject to the jurisdiction of the Freedom of Information Act, or whether since it is privileged exchange of information between attorney and client, it is exempt from the act,” Tewarie said.

Tewarie said the entire case hinges on whether a matter of “attorney-client privilege” trumps “what the JCC has labelled a “matter of grave public concern”.

“The citizen, seeking to understand and appreciate this, needs to ask himself or herself if every legal advice given to Government were to become public information, whether Government will be able to function,” Tewarie said.

Tewarie said the decision on this matter had serious implications.

“The matter of the information requested by the JCC involved giving information on the legal advice that was given from the senior counsel to the Ministry of Planning through the Attorney General’s Office,” he said.

“As a minister I had no problem with making the information available freely to the public. I had no problem with that but the legal advice coming from the Attorney General’s Office and the legal position of the attorneys representing the Ministry of Planning was that the privileged information of a lawyer to his client should not be a matter for public disclosure by the Government because it would set a precedent for all other matters in which legal advice was sought by the Government and that would open the door too wide on the issue of freedom of information involving government business in which legal advice was sought,” he said.

Tewarie said he went ahead with the legal advice he was given. “It is not about secrecy and hiding anything,” Tewarie said.

The advice given to former attorney general Anand Ramlogan was that the Ministry of Planning did not comply with the Central Tenders Board (CTB) Act when it tendered and selected the developers for the billion-dollar Inva?ders Bay Development project.

The advice was provided by legal adviser to the attorney general, Joan R Furlonge, on February 13, 2012.

Furlonge questioned the procedure used by the Ministry of Planning in procuring bids for the billion-dollar project.

A week later, Ramlogan received another opinion from Senior Counsel Fenton Ramsahoye, stating the planning minister acted within the law.

The investors

Tewarie said when he was still planning minister all the legal arrangements were concluded with the two private sector investors for land between them.

The two investors were Derek Chin’s Dachin Company Ltd and Jerry Joseph’s Invaders Bay Marina Group (IBMG).

Dachin Company Ltd was picked for a ten-acre development, while IBMG was selected for the development of 13 acres of the billion-dollar land development deal.

The People’s Partnership Cabinet decided to lease Dachin 10.2 acres for a commercial/residential complex, a boutique hotel, a cultural focus area and three main event entertainment areas comprising a museum, bowling alley and movie theatres.

IBMG was to be leased 13 acres for a hotel, commercial office complex, cruise ship complex, gas station, residential development, light industrial development, and a marina.

“The investment was coming from the private sector and the State during the entire period had made no expenditure except for the services of PricewaterhouseCoopers to do a due diligence on all of the parties who had bid for the project and for negotiations with the two investors that they recommended and which Cabinet approved,” Tewarie said.

“There were modest fees also for one legal firm. There was no frivolous expenditure involved in this project and there was no expenditure on physical work at the Invaders Bay property,” he said.

The Invader’s Bay Development project is in abeyance until the ongoing court matter comes to an end, Minister of Planning and Development Camille Robinson-Regis has said.

“It is in abeyance and no decision has been made as yet because we were really waiting on the court matter to come to an end so we can probably now move forward to some extent, but we are just waiting on the Attorney General’s advice on how to move forward,” Robinson-Regis said.

The Invaders Bay Project is among the list of developments currently listed on the website of the Urban Development Corporation of T&T.

Udecott chairman Noel Garcia said the corporation was awaiting the Cabinet’s decision on the way forward for the project.

“We are waiting a directive from the Government on how to proceed. If you recall under the former administration they had entered into or were about to enter into an arrangement with Mr Derek Chin and another proponent and that was hotly contested by the JCC and Mr Afra Raymond leading to a High Court matter.

“This new administration did not advance what the last administration did. In addition, the last administration made a procedural mistake in that those lands are owned by Udecott and you cannot enter into a contract for something you don’t own. So what we are really waiting on at Udecott is to get a clear directive from the Cabinet as to how they want Udecott to proceed with this matter. At the moment we are waiting on a direction,”Garcia said.

Garcia said he did not think the present administration has any intention of proceeding with the project as conceptualised by the former administration. “I think this administration, in particular Dr (Keith) Rowley, has been very clear that that project was not done in a transparent manner and as a result he was one of the main advocates against the project so we at Udecott are waiting on a directive from the Cabinet on how to proceed and we have not yet gotten that directive. So the project is in abeyance to put it in a word,” Garcia said.

Chin: My name being slandered

Derek Chin said everything was done above board with respect to the proposals for the project.

“My name is being slandered around and I have been in Trinidad and Tobago for 40 years in business and my name has never been involved in any bacchanal. My name has only been involved in good things like MovieTowne and so on, and people need to understand that,” Chin said.

Chin said he envisioned a development at Invaders’ Bay called the Street of the World that would be the Epcot Centre of the Caribbean.

“I wanted to create pride in our country and our cultures. The idea was to create this Epcot of the Caribbean. It would take Trinidad and Tobago to a totally new dimension and make this country a beautiful destination,” Chin said.

Chin said he submitted his proposal for the Streets of the World to the People’s Partnership administration.

“I submitted this proposal and the Government of the day loved it and it was the top proposal as compared to others that were submitted,” he said.

“What people are misinformed about is that they are thinking the Streets of the World is a government project. It is not. It is a Derek Chin project, my project, my idea, my money.”

He said he was willing to invest $500 million.

“People think that I had an inside track that I got this project called Streets of the World and there was no tender. The fact is it is not government money, they asked for a proposal, I gave them a proposal and said I was willing to do the project with my investors but asked if they could make the land available that we can make something like this happen in Trinidad,” Chin said.

Chin said he and the Government were in discussion about him being leased ten acres of land at Invaders Bay for $130 million.

The Government used Pricewaterhouse Coopers while Chin said he used Ernst and Young.

“I have not signed anything, no money passed, we were trying to negotiate with the two accounting firms what would be the most economical arrangement,” he said.

Since the general election of 2015, Chin said things have stalled with respect to the project.

“Since this thing happened I have not been pushing it because I have been committed to many other projects but I think at the end of the day when you reflect it is really a sorry state that the country is being robbed of something so beautiful and something that will make such a big difference,” he said.

Chin said he anticipates the Streets of the World Project could create some 5,000 jobs in this country including tourism and construction.

Chin said he has received a call from Udecott asking if he was still interested in the project.

​AFRA: WE NEED ANSWERS

When Afra Raymond was JCC president he began the legal action against the Ministry of Planning.

Speaking to the Sunday Guardian, Raymond said the public needs to be informed about the proposals for Invaders Bay including “the start of public consultations and the funding model being proposed”.

“We need to be clear whether the proposed International Finance Centre, Convention Centre, and Five-Star Luxury Hotel announced by the Minister of Finance in April 2016 is via a Government-to-Government Arrangement. Are there any further proposals for Invaders Bay? How are these to be funded? Are these proposals net foreign exchange earners?”

Raymond also took the JCC to task for its silence on the matter.

“After the JCC silence on Invaders Bay for the last year, I was not surprised at their lack of response to the Appeal Court’s majority ruling on October 28, 2016, in favour of their request to have those legal opinions published. Invaders Bay is the single largest development in the country, which was being conducted improperly by the previous administration, so it was previously a matter of high concern to the JCC. Having withdrawn from any public engagement on this matter and consented on November 21, 2016, to the State’s application to appeal to the Privy Council, this JCC’s call for ‘good sense to prevail’ is really bemusing,” Raymond said.

During his mid-year budget review Finance Minister Colm Imbert indicated that the Government has begun discussions with some foreign investors on a set of integrated projects comprising an expanded international financial centre, a five star hotel and a convention centre, located at Invaders Bay.

Raymond questioned whether public property such as the land at Invaders Bay could be disposed of under the terms of Government-to-Government Agreement without the complete oversight of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Act which was assented to June 17.

Chairman of the Congress of the People, Jameson Bahadur says the people in T&T are not ready for change and this is the reason why his party failed to win any seats in last week’s local government elections.

In an interview with the T&T Sunday Guardian, Bahadur said the party had plans to meet with its losing candidates yesterday to discuss the results.

His initial feelings, however, was that the voting population was comfortable with the two larger political parties.

“Here it is I went up for my seat, I lived in my area 45 years, I have shown people many things I had done in my community, but I did not win. They weren’t voting for persons, they were voting for party.”

The COP sent forward six candidates in the Tunapuna/Piarco region and won none of the seats. In 2013, the COP won three districts, two in Tunapuna/Piarco and one in San Fernando.

This year, the People’s National Movement (PNM) won seven regional corporations, while the United National Congress (UNC) won six corporations. Both parties tied in the Sangre Grande Regional Corporation.

“In 2013, it was a combination, it wasn’t the UNC alone or the COP alone, the elections were fought together. That’s why we won those seats,” Bahadur said.

He said this year the UNC held back.

“It didn’t happen this time. I don’t know. As far as I know, they set up a meeting and a half an hour before we were supposed to meet with the UNC, the UNC said they could not meet.

“I know Mr Ramadhar wrote a letter to Kamla (Persad-Bissessar, Opposition leader) and still the UNC did not show up for the meeting. They wanted to do it on their own.”

Bahadur said the COP had asked for six seats out of 16 in the Tunapuna/Piarco corporation.

“Two or three weeks after they competed for the whole 16 seats because they felt they could win the whole corporation. It was selfishness and greed and ungratefulness because we stuck with them as the People’s Partnership for the whole five years.”

He said aside from the UNC’s abandonment, he was trying to understand what people wanted.

“People didn’t vote. It clearly shows me that the population isn’t looking for someone who can do something for them although they complain. I have taken a back seat. I am going to watch and see.”

VALDEEN SHEARS-NEPTUNE

​She hopes that he got to play football. That he continued to run track and field. That he wears medals and proudly raises trophies wherever he might be. This is the heartfelt wish of one sister who lost her younger brother ten years ago.

For 26-year-old Folade “Kesi” Kenyatta, only faith has kept her going for the last decade.

“I would be broken in spirit if I didn’t have my faith that one day he will come back to us,” she said as tears ran down her cheeks.

Kenyatta’s brother Ezenachi, who she fondly called “Makey”, was just 15 years old when he disappeared on April 29, 2006.

She said he had gone to the market that day to purchase food items and returned, but left to go back to San Juan and was never seen again.

“‘Kizzy, ah gone’, were his last words to me. Maybe that’s why I feel such a connection to him to this day. I probably was the last family member he spoke to on that day,” she recalled.

He was a Form Three student at the Russel Latapy Secondary School at the time and had brought home several medals and trophies in track and field. He also played football.

Kenyatta said what still has the family confused is that Makey had no issues at school and did not have any altercations with anyone in the village.

Kenyatta comes from a family of seven siblings, two girls and five boys. However, only three of them grew up with their mother at Morvant, Laventille.

Although they lived with their mom, she was self-employed and earned enough as a vendor to provide them with a happy home.

Additionally, Kenyatta said, their father contributed to their upbringing until they were all young adults.

She said the family fell apart when her brother went missing. His name is never spoken aloud among them.

But she never stopped believing. Kenyatta celebrates his birthday every year on January 3 by posting a passport-sized photo of him on her Facebook page. She does the same thing every year to mark the anniversary of his disappearance.

Kenyatta recalled jokingly how he held her secrets, would threaten to expose her when they fell out, but would never do so.

She knows that had he not vanished, he would have been a fiercely loyal and protective brother.

Their father, she said, had changed his name before their births and adopted Africanism. As a result they all carry powerful African names.

Ezenachi, she said, means “the king rules” and originated from West Africa.

Family heartlessly pranked

Shortly after his disappearance, Kenyatta said Makey’s $50 mobile phone was answered by a woman who said she had “bought the phone for $60 from a piper.”

Kenyatta tried questioning the woman further, but she hung up. Several calls to the phone after that went unanswered. She was only 16 at the time and vividly remembered going to the Morvant Police Station to place the report. Nothing came out of it.

As far as she could tell, it was as if their mother had gone into shock and denial. To date, she has never sat them down and spoken about him, the police or the investigation. As a result, Kenyatta could not provide the name of any officers who would have been assigned her brother’s case.

It was torturous, she recalled, watching her mother jump into their family car and drive off to various locations whenever people called and said they had sighted Makey. She would also traverse the streets of Port-of-Spain looking among the city’s street children, hoping to find her son.

The family was even told he was seen as far as south Trinidad.

“One time, two years ago, we went up on a popular talk show and someone called in and said they had seen him in San Juan eating out of a dustbin. I think it was just cruel that people could do that without having proof it was him,” she said.

Wiping away fresh tears, Kenyatta said she will give anything to see her brother again.

“I want him to know that we are not vex with him. If he left or was taken from us for whatever reason, we just want him back home. He is missed and loved so much by so many,” she said.

To people who chose to leave their families without warning, Kenyatta called on them to act more responsibly and with sensitivity to those who are left to grieve. She also urged the police to stop treating the missing like the forgotten.

MORE INFO

Anyone with information about the whereabouts of Ezenachi “Makey” Kenyatta, can contact the Morvant Police Station at 624-3737/627-0875; Anti-Kidnapping Unit at 623-6793 or call the family at 346-5845.

Seven days after crab catcher Anil “Punko” Sankar disappeared from his Claxton Bay home, his family found his badly decomposed corpse inside an abandoned latrine.

Death for 24-year-old Sankar came two weeks after a neighbour ran into his Fifth Street Extension, Pranz Garden, home and threatened to kill him.

The grief was too much for his mother, Devika Sankar, to bear yesterday as she said that, recently, several villagers have threatened to wipe out her family.

She sat on a chair weeping and had to be held up by relatives who had earlier accompanied her into the bushes not too far from her home. It was in those bushes that Devika stumbled upon Sankar’s clothing, then a pair of slippers, and strands of hair before coming upon two abandoned houses. Sankar’s body was found inside a nearby latrine hole. Police were able to identify him through a missing front tooth and the fact that all his fingers on his right hand were amputated after a scratch bomb accident in 2006. Police could not determine how he was killed and will await the results of an autopsy at the Forensic Science Centre tomorrow.

“The last time I saw him was Sunday. He was home when he said he wanted his food. I gave him the food and I thought he was in his bed, but when I checked, he was not there. Since then, I did not see him again...He had no phone so I couldn’t call him. I waited until Monday to ask my sister’s husband, Anand, if Anil went to work with him. He said my son was not with him,” Devika said.

On Tuesday, Devika said, she began searching the mangroves and the cane fields for Sankar but it was only yesterday morning that she got a hunch to search the bushes.

Sankar’s sister, Sherry Jaglal, said that although they reported his disappearance to Couva police, they got no help. 

MP for Port-of-Spain North/St Ann’s West Stuart Young says undistributed housing projects that were left to deteriorate under the People’s Partnership government are an abuse of citizens and taxpayers of this country.

He was speaking at a key distribution ceremony for approximately 200 new HDC (Housing Development Corporation) home owners at the Government Campus Plaza, Richmond Street, Port-of-Spain, yesterday.

Young said, “In 2009 under a PNM Government, in the Wellington housing project in Debe, houses were completed and handed over in 2009-2010.

“The then administration came in and left these houses which are for you the citizens of T&T to completely deteriorate over a period of a few years where they could have been distributed to worthy citizens to provide the security and safety of a roof over your heads.

“Then they awarded a contract to someone to fix these houses that cost us citizens hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Young said: “Another one that bothered me as a citizen tremendously and should bother every right thinking citizen who should ask questions about the Victoria Keys housing project in Diego Martin.”

He said under then housing minister, now Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, the houses were almost completed prior to 2009, but what happened next was nothing short of abuse of citizens and more importantly taxpayers.

Young said the housing minister between 2010 and 2015 and his regime decided to strip all the finished apartments and refurbish them in the most lavish settings and finishings at taxpayers’ expense, and the availability of those houses as low-income houses was lost.

Housing Minister Randall Mitchell said earlier this year the sod was turned and construction officially commenced at River Runs Through, Arima; Bon Air South, Arouca; and Mt Hope which will provide an additional 320 units to the national stock.

He said by the end of the year, the ministry also intended to turn the sod at three new sites at Gomez Trace, Moruga; D’Abadie; and Corinth, San Fernando.

RALPH BANWARIE

Matelot has been reconnected to the rest of Trinidad as a bailey bridge has been installed over the Bacasa River, allowing vehicles and villagers to move out and into their community.

The village was marooned for the last few days after heavy rains caused the bridge to be washed away on Wednesday, separating the villagers from the rest of the country.

Matelot villagers were able to get relief supplies like water, tins of bread, biscuits, cots, rice, battery lamps, and two-burner stoves to assist them, around 1 pm yesterday

They also received supplies for the babies of the village which included wipes, diapers, and milk.

Wazir Mohammed, senior supervisor of T&TEC, and his crew were able to restore electricity to the villagers early yesterday morning.

Sherland Sheppard, director, WASA Operations, told the Sunday Guardian that water supply would be restored by last night.

However, villagers were complaining about their telephone connection, which has not been restored.

MP for Toco/Sangre Grande Glenda Jennings-Smith and councillor Terry Rondon were very happy to receive relief supplies for the villagers of Matelot.

Jennings-Smith promised villagers that the landslides and deplorable road conditions would be addressed in the quickest possible time so that their lives could return to normal.

She appealed for an ODPM office be established in Toco, so emergencies and disasters like this one can be addressed quickly.

CHENNAI, India (CMC) – All-rounder Hayley Matthews has described West Indies Women’s win over Bangladesh on Sunday as ‘important’ as the team prepares for crucial matches in the Women’s T20 World Cup under way in India.

Matthews played a key role in West Indies Women’s second victory in the tournament, a 49- run triumph over Bangladesh Women at the Chidambaram Stadium following an opening win over Pakistan.

West Indies Women take on top-rated England in their next game in Dharamsala on Thursday before playing India.

“I think that it was important for the team, especially knowing we have two hard games coming up versus England and India to secure a second round in the tournament,” said Matthews in an interview with WICB media.

“It would definitely be a challenge, different conditions and so on. Obviously England are one of the better teams in the tournament so we are just looking to hopefully get a win against them, which would really give the girls a lot of confidence by going on to the India game”.

Matthews hit the top score of 41 as West Indies posted a competitive 148 for four from their allocation of 20 overs, after choosing to bat against Bangladesh.

The 18-year-old faced 42 balls and struck four fours while teaming up with her skipper Stafanie Taylor to compile 67 off 70 balls for the first wicket.

Taylor also returned with her off spin to grab two for 16.

“I was not in too much form coming over here and I didn’t really get a good spell in a warm-up game. So I was pretty happy to get some runs today and also to get the team off to a good start with Stafanie,” said Matthews.

“I have been doing a lot of work on my bowling recently, so I am glad to see some progress in that area… not only with the bat.”

The result meant that the Caribbean side is now perched at the top of the Group “B” standings with four points and a healthy net run rate of 1.325.

“It’s really good to start the tournament off with two wins, especially after losing the series to South Africa,” she said.

“So we are just really looking to continue that form.”

The excitement of opening new gifts and meeting Santa Claus around Christmas time is not a privilege that every child in T&T experiences.

However, the holiday cheer was felt by close to 500 underprivileged children yesterday as they revelled in the Southern Division Women Police and South CID’s 15th annual Christmas treat at the Southern Regional Indoor Sports Arena, Pleasantville.

Beaming smiles and joyous screams filled the arena as children who came from foster homes and poor families rode horses, pranced in the bouncy castle, and played with their favourite cartoon characters, Batman, Superman, Hulk, SpongeBob, SquarePants, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and, of course, Santa Claus.

Whenever they needed a rest, they would sit and enjoy a variety of treats, including popcorn, cotton candy and KFC.

Seeing the children so happy, it warmed the hearts of many of the officers, who even left their booths to play with the children. San Fernando CID’s Sgt Natasha Sylvester-Morrison said the response by the children has been overwhelming.

“It is overwhelming. Every year we get so many children and we don’t turn any away. Even if the homes or the schools give too many names, we ensure that every child is treated and we make sure they have everything their hearts could desire on this day.”

Apart from the games and treat, horsemen from the Mounted Branch were on hand to help their colleagues.

The annual treat was started 15 years ago by retired Woman ASP Collymore. Each station is responsible for selecting 30 children from their district, raising funds and operating a booth at the event. At the end of the treat, each child gets a toy, which must not cost less than $200.

Sylvester-Morrison added that the Southern Division Women Police was also working to fight violence and bullying at the homes and schools. Through their community policing effort, she said, a woman police is assigned to each school. Ever so often, the officers will visit the schools and teach students how to deal with violence.

While Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs Dennis Moses flew to Cuba last week to pay respects following the death of former Cuban president Fidel Castro, it was unclear up until yesterday evening whether the Government would be sending a representative to Castro’s funeral.

The state funeral for Castro takes place this morning at 7.30 am at Santa Ifigenia Cemetery in Santiago de Cuba where Cuban national heroes Jose Marti and Carlos Manuel de Cespedes are laid to rest.

The interment of Castro’s ashes followed a week of activities from November 28 to December 3 where Cubans and other well-wishers said adios to the former leader.

The Sunday Guardian yesterday sent questions to Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, Moses and other members of Government on whether any official from this country would attend.

Rowley and Moses did not respond to messages.

Several members of Government could not confirm whether a representative would be sent.

Castro died on November 25 at age 90.

Following Castro’s death, his brother, President Raúl Castro, announced that he would be cremated on November 26.

Castro’s ashes journeyed across the country from Havana to the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba.

Castro will be buried this morning in a private ceremony.

A divisive figure in life and death, public interest has surrounded the world leaders who have chosen to attend Castro’s commemoration rally and those who have declined.

The list of world leaders who will attend include Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, Ecuador’s Rafael Correa, Bolivia’s Evo Morales and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, as well as Salvadorean President Salvador Sanchez Ceren and Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto.

South Africa’s Jacob Zuma and Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe are also expected to attend.

Regionally, Dominica Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerritt, President-elect Jocelerme Privert of Haiti, and Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness are also expected to attend.

Three police officers last attached to the Rapid Response Unit will appear before Port-of-Spain magistrate today charged with misbehaviour in public office, after they were arrested for allegedly accepting a total of $6,500 to forego prosecution against a Diego Martin man.

The men, Anderson Richards, 36, Nicholas Henry, 34 and Ronald Modeste, 26, were arrested between last Wednesday night and Thursday morning following a sting operation by the Professional Standards Bureau.

The officers were last working out of the Western Division and are all Special Reserve Police officers. The men, who are being represented by Fareed Ali, were granted $80,000 station bail.

It is alleged that the men, with between six to 11 years experience as officers collectively, misbehaved in public office on November 27 and 30 by corruptly soliciting from a member of the public, $4,500 and $2,000, as an inducement to not investigate a suspected criminal offence of human trafficking.

The office of the Director of Public Prosecutions gave the go ahead to charge the men on Saturday. The three will be among five officers who have appeared before a Port-of-Spain magistrate within a week. Last Monday, Supt Wayne Thongs and SRP Constable Dayna Spencer appeared before Senior Magistrate Nanette Forde-John, charged with engaging in a series of acts tending to pervert the course of public justice and misbehaviour in public office.

It is alleged that while attached to the RRU, Spencer, 40, presented duty slips to Thongs, 55, in February 2015 for work she reportedly had not done and for which he is alleged to have authorised for payment. The duo will reappear in court on February 6, 2017. Then last Thursday, SRP Shireen Khan appeared before a Port-of-Spain magistrate and was granted $15,000 bail to re-appear in court on December 8, after she was arrested on an outstanding warrant for prostitution.

The warrant was issued in 1996 for the alleged offence which would have happened the previous year.
 

Stigma and discrimination are the likely reasons why some people have resorted to paying others $500 to impersonate them during blood tests in order to get documentation showing they are HIV negative.

This was the view of HIV Coordinator at Ministry of National Security, Lt Colonel Anthony Whitehall, in response to an exclusive Sunday Guardian story, titled “HIV impostors,” which highlighted the alarming pattern picked up by the Ministry of Health

It was reported that the ministry had confirmed receiving reports of people impersonating others during blood tests, but it could not “definitively say” whether or not the impostors were being paid for their services.

Saying that stigma and discrimination was what was driving the virus, Whitehall added, “It has always driven it, because people’s fear of being discriminated against prevents them from going to get tested, particularity if they have been involved in at-risk behaviour.”

He said this was where the HIV policy in the workplace was so important and must be enforced to prevent discrimination.

“It is important that people who are HIV positive can be respected and not be discriminated against because of the HIV positive status. That is the crux of the matter,” he said.

“An employer may find out that someone may be HIV positive and that person may be shifted to another department, then some ways and means may be found to terminate that employment and that is what we have to deal with.”

Whitehall said while there have been numerous educational drives about the virus, people’s attitudes still needed to be drastically changed.

“When we do surveys and campaigns against HIV/Aids you realise that people are still deficient in their basic knowledge of the disease ... how does one become infected and so on ... people still feel that sitting next to somebody, you can contract HIV and sharing utensils ... basic information has been out there but people still have discrimination and stigmatisation against people who are known to be HIV positive.”

He added, “That is the reality we are living with.”

He said while medication had progressed to the point where a positive test was not necessarily a death sentence, the fear of the disease was still very prevalent.

RISKY SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR

Whitehall still urged that people stop engaging in risky sexual behaviour, warning that if this continued the problem would persist.

“Sexuality is at the core of our being and people are not willing to address their behaviour and that’s where the task is,” he added.

“It is changing behaviour and that is not something you switch on and switch off. It takes a long process for behaviour change and that has to be reinforced.”

Coordinator of the HIV/Aids Unit of the Ministry of Social Development Aileen Clarke, who spoke to members of the media during a stakeholders’ community fair in commemoration of World AIDS Day 2016 at the Brian Lara Promenade, Port-of-Spain, last Thursday, had also said part of the problem in combating the virus in T&T lay with behaviour modification.

“This is a very difficult thing to do, simply because our behaviour really is embedded in our culture,” Clarke had said.

She also said too many people were still engaging in risky sexual behaviour like having sex with out a condom, which continued to fuel the epidemic.

Coupled with this was the rampant stigma and discrimination, resulting in some being reluctant to get tested, Clarke agreed.

Statistics from the ministry’s HIV Unit showed that since the start of the epidemic in 1983 to December 2012, there were 20,085 people diagnosed with HIV in T&T.

The adult HIV prevalence rate in T&T in 2015 was 0.8 per cent. The estimated total number of people currently living with the disease is 11,000.

The number of new HIV infections, however, has begun to decrease from less than 1,000 people in 2010 to less than 500 people in 2015.

Contacted yesterday, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh confirmed that while the Sunday Guardian article was correct he did not want to comment as yet as he would have to seek more infromation on the matter.

T&T is part of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) convention which clearly admonishes discrimination against HIV positive people in the workplace.

Hours after the decomposing body of Claxton Bay crab catcher Anil Sankar was found in a latrine, his neighbour Troy James was gunned down outside his wake on Saturday night.

Mourners had to scamper for cover, as it was the second time in a week that they had heard gunshots ringing out in their Fifth Street Extension, Pranz Garden community.

Police said James, 32, a plumber, was walking along the road when a gunman walked up behind him and fired several shots. The father of three ran but collapsed a few metres away and died.

Couva CID, including PC Bunsilal, PC Ramoutar and PC Balkissoon, responded to the report, but the suspect was long gone by the time they arrived.

Investigators are trying to determine whether Sankar, 23 and James’ murder were related.

Yesterday, Sankar’s mother, Devika Sankar, said James visited her son at their home on November 27, just before he went missing. But Devika said she did not know Sankar and Anil to be friends, adding her son did not socialise much.

At her home yesterday, however, James’ common-law wife, Judea John, said both men were friends and would do small jobs together. John said James also bought crabs from Sankar. However, she said she believes James was murdered because of an ongoing war for squatting land. She said two brothers attacked James last year over his land. Earlier this year, she said the brothers tried to run James over with a car, but struck someone else.

“We have the normal bacchanal in this area over people fighting for land. He was a fella who used to stand up for everybody. All I heard was that when he went to the wake, somebody walked up to him and shot him,” John said.

James was the family’s breadwinner and a two-year-old daughter with John and two other children from a previous relationship. When a relative asked the girl for her father yesterday, she said,”Daddy gone over the hill to come back.”

At Sankar’s home, relatives said gunshots were heard on the night he went missing and they believe he was shot. However, his cause of death will have to be ascertained by an autopsy, which is expected today at the Forensic Science Complex, St James.

On Saturday morning, Sankar’s parents, Devika and Sham, and other relatives went to a bushy area near to James’ home. As they searched the area for Sankar, they found his slippers, clothes and strands of hair leading up to two abandoned houses. The stench of decomposition led them to the latrine where they found Sankar’s decomposing body inside the hole. It took undertakers and police hours to remove the body. He was identified by a missing front tooth and the fact that all the fingers on his right hand were amputated in a scratch bomb incident back in 2006.

Sankar’s death came approximately two weeks after a villager with a cutlass stormed their home threatening to kill Sankar. However, they could not get to him. Relatives said they reported the threat to the Couva police who promised to talk to the villager. However, he has not been seen in the area since then.

As the rest of the country remains focused on the disaster which occurred in Grand Riviere, Matelot and Toco following torrential rains last week, residents of Brasso Seco are now begging for assistance from the relevant authorities.

Secretary of the Village Council Winston Maraj said yesterday that about four houses were partially destroyed and crops washed away as a result of persistent rains last Tuesday and Wednesday.

The rains caused several landslides which also resulted in outages of electricity and the loss of telephone connection.

“The Madamas Road and the Siparia Main Road are cut off. Crops have been lost, implements have been lost and houses have been damaged. One house in particular was destroyed because a tree fell on it,” Maraj said.

Crops which were lost included tomato, christophene, bananas and cocoa.

He added that the Pentecostal church was also damaged by landslides and needed rebuilding.

The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM) ,he added, visited the area on Thursday and Friday and began preliminary work, but Maraj said much more could be done.

“The ODPM came with the Ministry of Works with a backhoe, but they are Government workers so they don’t work over the weekend. But we still have a lot of work to get done,” Maraj said.

He said what was urgently needed was an excavator for the Madamas Road, adding parts of the road were so broken that it was almost impossible for people to pass.

“We need to urgently clear the road and to rebuild it. Some of the transformers with the poles are lost down in the valley,” he said.

Maraj said a meeting was expected to take place this week to determine what building material was needed to repair damaged structures.

Calls made to ODPM director Dr Stephen Ramroop went unanswered yesterday.

Over the weekend, Matelot was reconnected to the rest of Trinidad as a Bailey bridge was installed over the Bacasa River, allowing vehicles and villagers to move out and into their community.

The village was marooned for the last few days after heavy rains caused the bridge to be washed away last Wednesday, separating the villagers from the rest of the country. Villagers were also finally able to get relief supplies like water, tins of bread, biscuits, cots, rice, battery lamps and two-burner stoves.