Loyse Vincent
Minister of Sport and Tobago West MP Shamfa Cudjoe says she completed her mandatory 14-day quarantine after returning to the country from the United States earlier this month.
Cudjoe made the comment yesterday, as she responded to social media claims that she should not have been at the People’s National Movement campaign meetings for Monday’s Tobago House of Assembly elections because she had not completed her quarantine.
Responding to those claims, Cudjoe said was, in fact, on her third day outside the stipulated quarantine period.
“If persons had done the necessary research they would have realised that there were no flights on the 11th of January, so that is not accurate,” Cudjoe told the T&T Guardian.
The issue arose after Cudjoe made an appearance during the PNM’s meeting at the Cyd Gray Sporting Complex in Roxborough on Wednesday. She also spoke at a meeting in Mt Pleasant on Thursday night.
Following Cudjoe’s appearance on Wednesday, a document bearing the Ministry of National Security letterhead was circulated on social media which indicated Cudjoe had been granted an exemption to depart T&T on December 16, 2020 and re-enter on January 11 via Caribbean Airlines.
After she was criticised for leaving the country, Cudjoe had told the media she and her sister had gone to the US to visit a relative who was undergoing medical treatment.
But Cudjoe also took to her social media page to criticise those who made the claim before verifying whether the information on the Ministry of National Security document being circulated on social media was accurate.
The Opposition was also not spared, as Cudjoe said, “Jokers on the opposite seeking to make bacchanal. Firstly, when you’re circulating documents please ensure you’re circulating the right document. Take a little time to think and fact check.”
Cuddle suggested that checks could have been made to Caribbean Airlines or the quarantine facility to ensure that she was on the flight stated in the letter or at the facility, although details at both avenues are considered confidential.
“Then you want to lead somebody!” Cudjoe added.
However, Cudjoe did not say when she actually returned to the country. Given her own statement about being at least three days past the quarantine period, however, it means she may have returned home around January 4/5.