SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tors are stand­ing in de­fence of their leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, stat­ing the ac­cu­sa­tions levied against her by Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley that she tipped off Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald one month be­fore her ar­rest was “spu­ri­ous and flights of fan­cy.”

Bat­ting for Per­sad-Bisses­sar yes­ter­day were six Sen­a­tors who host­ed a press con­fer­ence in Port-of-Spain dis­pelling the al­le­ga­tions raised by Row­ley.

The me­dia was told that Per­sad-Bisses­sar was at­tend­ing a cau­cus meet­ing and could not be present at the con­fer­ence.

On Mon­day, Row­ley re­vealed to the Par­lia­ment that Per­sad-Bisses­sar warned her po­lit­i­cal ad­ver­sary Mc­Don­ald one month be­fore her ar­rest that she was go­ing to be locked up.

In re­sponse, Ani­ta Haynes said in­stead of speak­ing about the fir­ing, re­hir­ing and fraud charges laid against Mc­Don­ald, Row­ley chose to rope Per­sad-Bisses­sar “in­to this sit­u­a­tion. We will not al­low that.”

Haynes said Row­ley was cre­at­ing a dis­trac­tion and “try­ing to take the na­tion down a rab­bit hole with him to say that the po­lit­i­cal leader tipped off Mc­Don­ald.”

Haynes said Mc­Don­ald came for­ward to say Per­sad-Bisses­sar had warned her be­cause she has a lot of her plate.

“Is 22 wit­ness­es against Ms Mc­Don­ald. I hope she fo­cus­es on the ac­cu­sa­tion levied against her which are very se­ri­ous.”

Haynes said the en­tire is­sue was a “he say and she say.”

Asked if the PM did not speak the truth, Haynes replied:

“They are try­ing to ma­nip­u­late what could have been crosstalk and con­ver­sa­tions to make it some­thing that it is not.”

Ques­tioned if Per­sad-Bisses­sar would take Row­ley be­fore the Par­lia­men­tary Priv­i­leges Com­mit­tee for his state­ments, Wade Mark said that was a de­ci­sion for the par­lia­men­tary cau­cus.

“She can­not take that uni­lat­er­al­ly.”

Mark warned the coun­try to “stay tuned” when asked if Per­sad-Bisses­sar will break her si­lence on the mat­ter at the UNC’s Mon­day Night Fo­rum.

Pressed if the Op­po­si­tion viewed the PM’s al­le­ga­tions against their leader as damn­ing, Khadi­jah Ameen said no, stat­ing that the damn­ing al­le­ga­tions are against Mc­Don­ald.