Justice Dennis Morrison has resigned from the Commission of Enquiry (CoE) into the February 25 Paria Fuel diving tragedy in which four men lost their lives.
Speaking during a post-Cabinet media briefing yesterday at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s, Energy Minister Stuart Young said Morrison tendered his resignation several days ago.
“Within the past few days I received the resignation of Mr Justice Dennis Morrison for personal reasons and we can’t expand because he didn’t expand on the personal reasons,” Young said.
He thanked Morrison for his work on the CoE but later clarified that Morrison had not been paid for any of his duties, so no taxpayers’ money was lost when he resigned.
“As you are aware, he came, he was sworn in, he met with the council’s commission, a lot of work has been going on, between the two commissioners and Mr Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj and his team,” Young said.
He said just yesterday, Cabinet approved a replacement for Morrison.
Young said Jamaican-born Queen’s Counsel Jerome Lynch will take over the reins of the chairmanship.
He said Lynch has a lot of experience and was well-qualified for the position.
Young said he is hoping the CoE will be able to continue its previous schedule.
“One of the discussions I had with him before he undertook the task, subject to Cabinet’s approval, of being the chairman of this Commission of Enquiry is that they would be able to stick to the original timetables that they set out when Mr Justice Morrison was here and that Mr Ramesh Lawerence Maharaj, SC, has been talking to the population about, which is the commencement of their procedural hearings in the month of August,” Young said.
But Young said the Government would not be able to dictate the pace of the Commission, as it was an independent body.
The Paria Diving Tragedy
On February 25, five divers working for contractor LMCS Limited were working on a 30-inch pipeline at a Paria Fuel Trading Company Limited Facility, when they ended up trapped inside the pipeline.
The five, Yusuf Henry, Fyzal Kurban, Kazim Ali Jr, Rishi Nagessar and Christopher Boodram, were conducting an underwater maintenance exercise at the No 36 Sealine riser on Berth #6 at Paria’s Pointe-a-Pierre facility.
Paria later stated an “incident occurred,” causing the divers to be sucked into the pipeline.
All but Boodram died.
There was a nationwide uproar calling for justice for the four men.
On March 3, the Government announced a committee had been appointed to investigate the tragedy.
That committee consisted of chairman, attorney Shiv Sharma, subsea specialist Gregory Wilson, Energy Chamber appointee Eugene Tiah and one member each from BP and Shell. They were tasked with finding what led to the divers’ deaths and who was liable.
However, on March 7, Tiah announced his resignation from the committee, hinting at attacks the Opposition United National Congress had levelled against him since his appointment.
Later that day, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley announced the investigative committee would be scrapped and a Commission of Enquiry done in its place.