JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Saturday, May 3, 2025

PNM, COP on Jack video: PM must address issue now

by

20111013

The Op­po­si­tion Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) and the Con­gress of the Peo­ple (COP), a coali­tion part­ner in the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship, have called on Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to im­me­di­ate­ly act in the is­sue con­cern­ing taped state­ments by Works and In­fra­struc­ture Min­is­ter Jack Warn­er. PNM MP Amery Browne said Per­sad-Bisses­sar must im­me­di­ate­ly sus­pend Warn­er from the Cab­i­net and al­low a po­lice probe to pro­ceed. COP chair­man Joseph Toney, who said he was not at all com­fort­able with the sit­u­a­tion per­tain­ing to Warn­er, added that the Prime Min­is­ter must speak about the is­sue and the coun­try must be told whether any laws were bro­ken.

The tape was post­ed on the In­ter­net by Lon­don's Tele­graph news­pa­per. In it, Warn­er al­leged­ly urged fel­low Caribbean foot­ball of­fi­cials to ac­cept US$40,000 cash gifts from Qatar's Mo­hamed bin Ham­mam, a for­mer pres­i­den­tial can­di­date for world foot­ball gov­ern­ing body, FI­FA. Warn­er was at the time speak­ing at a meet­ing of the Caribbean Foot­ball Union (CFU) on May 11 at the Hy­att Re­gency Ho­tel, Port-of-Spain. This was be­fore FI­FA's pres­i­den­tial elec­tions. The gifts were an al­leged pay­ment for CFU mem­bers to sup­port bin Ham­mam's can­di­da­cy. Warn­er was sus­pend­ed pend­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to the in­ci­dent. He sub­se­quent­ly re­signed as FI­FA vice-pres­i­dent. Warn­er has ad­mit­ted to telling the CFU del­e­gates to take the mon­ey and use it for de­vel­op­ment, but he says the tape was doc­tored.

Yes­ter­day, COP's Toney said: "While Warn­er is no longer in FI­FA that doesn't wipe away every­thing. "This is not a com­fort­able sit­u­a­tion for the Gov­ern­ment or Cab­i­net and I for one am not at all com­fort­able with it," he said. "One would hope the mat­ter is cleared up as quick­ly as pos­si­ble whether by FI­FA, Warn­er or the Prime Min­is­ter. "The coun­try needs to as­cer­tain if any laws were bro­ken, if on­ly to set­tle this one way or the oth­er...Any ac­tion on Warn­er would be her (PM's) call." PNM's Browne al­so said: "Warn­er must be sus­pend­ed as a gov­ern­ment min­is­ter and prop­er in­ves­ti­ga­tion done with­in our shores, tak­ing in­to con­sid­er­a­tion the se­ri­ous al­le­ga­tions made and the ev­i­dence that has come to light. "This tape can­not be over­looked us­ing the usu­al ex­cus­es about who has files on who and that 'all will be re­vealed in time,'" he said.

"This is ev­i­dence in black, white and colour. "Hun­dreds were ar­rest­ed un­der the state of emer­gency with no ev­i­dence or less than what has been pro­duced in Warn­er's case. "Gov­ern­ment should be ashamed of con­tin­u­ing to sub­ject cit­i­zens to such un­just treat­ment while turn­ing a blind eye to the glar­ing ev­i­dence of atroc­i­ties at the high­est lev­el of Cab­i­net." Not­ing Warn­er act­ed as Prime Min­is­ter up to three weeks ago, Browne said: "The Prime Min­is­ter can no longer hide from this...She must act im­me­di­ate­ly and once she does her du­ty and sus­pends Warn­er that will al­low the Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er to con­duct the in­ves­ti­ga­tion on Warn­er and the is­sue which the PNM has been call­ing for him to do.

"This CFU meet­ing oc­curred on T&T soil when Warn­er was a min­is­ter," he added. "If the Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er need­ed ev­i­dence, this tape now makes it ab­solute­ly nec­es­sary for this probe to go for­ward. "If we wait for Warn­er to re­sign, it is clear he will nev­er do so no mat­ter what ev­i­dence is pre­sent­ed. "The PM must stop vac­il­lat­ing and do what is right for T&T, es­pe­cial­ly since Gov­ern­ment is seek­ing in­vest­ment. "The Prime Min­is­ter can­not keep par­rot­ing that T&T is open for busi­ness when by her in­ac­tion on this sort for sit­u­a­tion she shows she has no con­cern for T&T's im­age or the al­leged con­duct of her min­is­ters."


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored