Joshua Seemungal
The opposition United National Congress has called, yet again, for the immediate resignation of Attorney General Reginald Armour.
At its weekly press conference, in Port-of-Spain yesterday, the opposition claimed that AG Armour has lost the trust of the judiciary and population.
“The AG must do the right thing and step down. Attorney General Armour’s self-imposed vow of silence is an insult to the intelligence of the citizenry and is pretty self-serving,” Opposition MP Rambally said.
The claim comes after the Attorney General was disqualified, in early May, from representing the state in civil proceedings related to charges of alleged corruption and fraud in the Piarco Airport Project in the United States.
A Miami Court ruled to disqualify AG Armour from the matter because he represented a defendant, Brian Kuei Tung, in the matter years before.
Armour, defending his previous role, said that he acted as a junior attorney for Kuei Tung’s defence team, limited only to taking notes.
The Attorney General has since vowed to remain silent on the issue, but the opposition is refusing to let the issue go away quietly.
Yesterday, opposition MP for Chaguanas West Dinesh Rambally said that Armour embarrassed the country.
“He did not remember any of the details of this case. This man, Honourable Attorney General, the titular head of the bar, he must be taking all of Trinidad and Tobago for fools, if he thinks we will believe that,” MP Rambally said.
Attorney General Reginald Armour.
Office of the Parliament
“He deceptively tries to downplay his involvement by saying he was merely a notetaker in this matter in which he was actively involved in for a few years. Did it not occur to him that remaining even partially involved was equivalent to a billboard screaming out, conflict of interest?”
The opposition’s shadow minister for national security also suggested that the Law Association should speak up.
“The law association has a mandate. They should have acted on their own initiative, their own volition and should have taken steps to deal with this matter one way or the other. Law association we wait to hear from you,” MP Rambally said.
Meanwhile, former education minister under the People’s Partnership government Tim Gopessingh accused the present government of failing the students and parents of the country.
He claimed the government is clueless and has no idea how to deal with the mounting violence in schools.
“This week gone has been a truly horrendous week for Trinidad and Tobago, as a nation was confronted with a very frightening truth and reality about the true state of school violence and indiscipline in our country,” Gopeesingh said.
“The Minister of Education, sorry, you mean well but you’re not doing your job. You have sat down for too long and you had two years in the pandemic to think this through.”
The former education minister also claimed that the government wiped out two generations of students by their actions during the pandemic.