Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley says Port-of-Spain May­or Ray­mond Tim Kee did the cor­rect thing in re­spond­ing to crit­i­cism from the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty.He said Tim Kee's state­ments fol­low­ing the mur­der of Japan­ese pan­nist Asa­mi Na­gakiya were "un­ac­cept­able."

Dr Row­ley said he felt the may­or had re­spond­ed as he should and the mat­ter had been prop­er­ly han­dled. While he had ini­tial­ly re­fused to con­demn Tim Kee for his re­marks, he said af­ter re­view­ing the full state­ment on tele­vi­sion he re­alised the com­ments were un­ac­cept­able.

Asked if he had in­flu­enced Tim Kee's de­ci­sion, Row­ley said cer­tain con­cerns were con­veyed to Tim Kee in a text mes­sage con­ver­sa­tion ear­ly Thurs­day.

"I am the fa­ther of two daugh­ters. The very first time they played mas they played with Poi­son for their first Car­ni­val. I would in no way cre­ate an en­vi­ron­ment or con­ver­sa­tion where any woman who is harmed is as a re­sult of how she is dressed," he said.

"I feel his com­ments were clear­ly un­ac­cept­able but he has stat­ed his in­ten­tion to re­sign. As far as we're con­cerned it's been ad­dressed."

Dr Row­ley, who thanked Tim kee for his ser­vice as may­or, said he had no pow­er to fire or dis­miss the may­or.Tim Kee cur­rent­ly holds the po­si­tion of trea­sur­er in the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment but the prime min­is­ter said the par­ty does not nec­es­sar­i­ly take re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the con­duct of every in­di­vid­ual.

"If any one of us in the PNM does any­thing that doesn't find favour with the pub­lic, well then it wouldn't be a gem in our crown but by the same to­ken we don't have to over­do it and, you know, be­have as though we are go­ing to car­ry out a pub­lic lynch­ing."

Asked his po­si­tion on Point Fortin May­or Clyde Paul's sup­port of Tim Kee, Row­ley said he didn't know that it is ad­vis­able for any­one to sup­port a view that is clear­ly un­ac­cept­able.