Hours be­fore for­mer PNM min­is­ter Ken Val­ley died, a re­quest was made to the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship Gov­ern­ment for as­sis­tance to the for­mer Diego Mar­tin MP. Val­ley, fa­ther of six, died from colon can­cer at his Pt Cumana home yes­ter­day morn­ing. Rel­a­tives said his fu­ner­al will take place at St Fin­bar's RC Church in Diego Mar­tin next week. The ex­act date has not as yet been con­firmed, rel­a­tives said yes­ter­day. Per­sad-Bisses­sar told CNC-3 that the re­quest was made dur­ing Thurs­day's Cab­i­net meet­ing.

She said Val­ley al­ways act­ed with deco­rum and dig­ni­ty as an MP.Per­sad-Bisses­sar said Val­ley, who be­came MP in 1990, af­ter the Ju­ly 27 at­tempt­ed coup, was a "good politi­cian." Lat­er in an of­fi­cial re­lease, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said Val­ley was a "provider." The PM said she learnt of Val­ley's death dur­ing her "ear­ly morn­ing med­i­ta­tion." "I will al­ways think of him as hav­ing been a provider," Per­sad-Bisses­sar added. She said Val­ley was "frank and fear­less."

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said: "Ken Val­ley was a no­tably wor­thy man. And the PNM flag at par­ty head­quar­ters, Bal­isi­er House in Port-of-Spain is be­ing flown at half mast. A re­lease from par­ty sec­re­tary Ash­ton Ford said the par­ty lead­er­ship would meet with Val­ley's fam­i­ly to de­ter­mine what as­sis­tance it could pro­vide with his fu­ner­al arrange­ments.