CAMILLE McEACH­NIE

The To­ba­go Coun­cil of the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) is call­ing on Wat­son Duke—po­lit­i­cal leader of the Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots (PDP)—to make a per­son­al apol­o­gy to the To­ba­go women he wronged by call­ing them "stink and dut­ty" dur­ing the re­cent gen­er­al elec­tions.

This call comes af­ter PDP's deputy po­lit­i­cal leader Far­ley Au­gus­tine-apol­o­gised on Duke's be­half, at a press brief­ing on Tues­day.

In a re­lease on Wednes­day morn­ing, the PNM said Au­gus­tine's apol­o­gy is in­ad­e­quate.

"Sor­ry, Far­ley! You can­not hide be­hind that half-baked apol­o­gy. True lead­er­ship means tak­ing full re­spon­si­bil­i­ty. Wat­son Duke must apol­o­gize to To­ba­go women," the PNM said.

The re­lease not­ed the apol­o­gy was too lit­tle and too late, com­ing 11 days af­ter it was said on the PDP podi­um.

"Duke wasn't man enough to apol­o­gize for the pub­lic abuse of the two women. He had to send his deputy to do it, " the PNM To­ba­go Coun­cil leader Tra­cy David­son -Ce­les­tine said in the re­lease.

Guardian Me­dia reached out to Duke, via What­sApp, ask­ing if he will apol­o­gise to the women.

He has not re­spond­ed to our query.

On Ju­ly 31st, 2020, Duke's at­tor­ney wrote to a fe­male Face­book user de­mand­ing she re­move a post made on Ju­ly 29th, 2020, which de­famed Duke.

The woman's at­tor­ney sub­se­quent­ly wrote Duke in­di­cat­ing her client would not com­ply with Duke's re­quest.