NEWS
MOVES TO WIPE OUT TRAIN LINE – Relative of murdered vendor fears: I could be next
Months after he was shot during an attack which killed 16-year-old Darshan Ramnauth and Geno Shah in Train Line Village, St Augustine, 30-year-old watermelon vendor Dillon Joseph was gunned down at his Caroni stall on Wednesday afternoon. Joseph's sister said amidst the grief of losing a sibling, she is afraid she and other relatives could be next. This is the fifth person from Train Line Village, who has been murdered for the year thus far. Police said Joseph was at his tent selling watermelons on the Caroni Savannah Road, near the Caroni Bridge, around 1.13 pm when a black Nissan Tiida drove up. Two gunmen got out and shot him several times before driving off. A 37-year-old fish vendor was also wounded. Read more here
$1.5m bail for 7 cops on corruption charges
Seven police officers received a total of $1.5 million in bail after appearing in court charged with misbehaviour in public office and perverting the course of justice yesterday. Inspector Deyal Ramlakhan was granted $300,000 bail with surety in addition to his previous $250,000 and SRP PC Cleon Smith had an additional $400,000 surety bail in addition to his previous bail of $250,000 granted by Magistrate Cheron Raphael. Ag Cpl Saheed Khan was yesterday placed on $150,000 bail; PCs Davanan Ragbir and Macai Joseph were granted $200,000 bail; and PCs Rayon Charles and PC Jason O’ Souna were granted $150,000 bail. All bail were granted with surety by Justice of the Peace Babootie. These officers were charged in the ongoing case on Tuesday, after they were summoned to report to the Professional Standards Bureau on Monday. Read more here
POLITICS
Reginald Dumas: Chief Sec's outburst could affect Tobago's quest for autonomy
Retired Head of the public service Reginald Dumas says THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine’s call for the Prime Minister to stay out of Tobago’s affairs could potentially thwart the island’s attempts at achieving greater autonomy. On Sunday, in an op-ed posted on his Facebook page, Dr Rowley said Augustine and his executive, who launched the Tobago People’s Party on April 17, did not have the mandate of Tobagonians and as such should call an election. He said if Augustine and his team wanted to be taken seriously by the central government and Tobagonians, he should “make an arrangement to have an early election.” Rowley noted the chief secretary and his executive were elected members of the Progressive Democratic Patriots when the party took control of the assembly after winning the December 6, 2021 THA election. Read more here
PM blanks Gary’s call for anti-crime talks
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley says he has good reason not to meet with National Transformation Alliance leader and former police commissioner Gary Griffith. Rowley made the comment while responding to a question from Naparima MP Rodney Charles in Parliament yesterday, on whether he would consider Griffith’s recent request to meet with him and Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar on crime. “Madame Speaker, as chairman of the National Security Council of Trinidad and Tobago, I have very good reasons not to meet with Gary Griffith under any circumstances. And in so far as meeting with the Opposition is concerned, I meet with them all the time in this chamber in front of you, Madame Speaker, and they have obstructed every single attempt we made to fight crime in this country,” Rowley said. However, Rowley noted that he often consults with people with crime-fighting expertise. Read more here
BUSINESS
NGC AIMs higher with asset integrity management
Asset integrity management (AIM) is a factor that could affect the entire value chain of TT’s oil and gas industry. Proper or improper management of a company’s assets could mean the difference between sustainable and reliable performance of our systems and networks, and complete shutdowns, loss of valuable gas and even loss of life. The majority of undesirable events and issues, if investigated usually leads to a gap in the management of a company’s assets. The National Gas Company of TT (NGC) since 2015 has been developing it AIM systems, after recognising through an audit by Det Norske Veritas (DNV) – independent assurance and risk management auditors – that much more needed to be done to optimise how it manages its assets. Read more here
Clico agrees to sell MHIL shares to Govt
Clico has entered into agreements to sell its 36.63 per cent shareholding in Methanol Holdings International Ltd (MHIL) to the Government and the wholly state-owned National Investment Fund Holding Company (NIF), Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Brian Manning told the Senate on Tuesday. Manning said on January 9, 2023, the Government accepted an offer to purchase 19.63 per cent of the 36.63 per cent of MHIL that Clico offered for sale. He said that on February 21, 2023, NIF accepted an offer from Clico to acquire the remaining 17 per cent shareholding that Clico offered for sale. Both the Government and NIF paid the valuation price that resulted from a valuation of Clico’s shareholding in MHIL that was completed last year, Manning said. He did not disclose the price that the Government and NIF paid for the shares or the valuation of the shares. Read more here
REGIONAL
Shockingly brazen attempts by Lowenfield, Mingo and Myers to derail elections – CoI finds
It has been revealed by the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (CoI) investigating the 2020 General and Regional Elections that senior officials at GECOM conspired and collaborated to divert votes to the APNU+AFC coalition instead of upholding the integrity of the electoral system. Chairman Stanley John and commissioners — former Chancellor Carl Singh and Senior Counsel Godfrey Smith, on Wednesday, handed over these findings and their report to President Dr. Irfaan Ali based on evidence from the many witnesses who testified along with the reports of the international observers. “…our inquiry reveals that there were, in fact, shockingly brazen attempts by Chief Election Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield, Deputy Chief Election Officer (DCEO), Roxanne Myers and Returning Officer (RO) Clairmont Mingo to derail and corrupt the statutorily prescribed procedure for the counting, ascertaining and tabulation of votes of the March 2nd election, as well as the true declaration of the results of that election, and that they did so – to put it in unvarnished language of the ordinary man – for the purpose of stealing the election,” the commissioners stated in their report. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
Ukraine war: Bakhmut defenders worry about losing support
A year ago Volodymyr and his men were firing all 40 barrels of their BM-21 Grad rocket launcher in one go. Now they can only afford to fire a few at a time at Russian targets. "We haven't got enough ammunition for our weapon," he explains. His unit, the 17th Tank Battalion, is still being called on to provide fire support to Ukrainian forces desperately clinging on to the edges of Bakhmut, the eastern Ukrainian city which Russia has spent months trying to capture. Russian forces are getting ever closer to their goal of taking the city, but at enormous cost. While we're waiting in a line of trees, hidden from view, Volodymyr receives a call to fire his rocket launcher at a Russian mortar position about 15 kilometres away. Read more here
27th April 2023