Williams denies letting Bakr into Petrotrin

Opposition Senator Wade Mark, alleged that Minister of Energy, Eric Williams, personally ordered Petrotrin to give an entry-pass for their Pointe-a-Pierre Refinery to Jamaat al Muslimeen leader, Yasin Abu Bakr, but Williams flatly denied the claim.

The charges were made yesterday in the Senate in a motion of the adjournment of the upper house by Mark citing a recent news report that Bakr had been issued a pass to Petrotrin to salvage scrap metal. Mark slammed: “This individual was involved in a bloody coup, who has shown no remorse and offered no apology.” He said Simon Johnson General Contractors, the company contracted to salvage the metal of which Bakr was a technical director had previously been de-listed by Petrotrin. Saying the Petrotrin compound stored one million barrels of oil and daily shipped 80,000 barrels to the Caribbean, Mark said: “Petrotrin is an extremely sensitive, highly secure area.”

Mark alleged that Petrotrin head of security, Brigadier Carl Alfonso, had objected to this issue of a pass to Bakr, and Petrotrin’s executive chairman had refused to issue the pass. Mark said: “But the head of security was instructed by the Minister of Energy to issue a pass to Abu Bakr...The Government ignored all this to instruct that a pass be issued to their VIP friend.” But Eric Williams responded: “I have nothing to do the issuing of passes to go into Petrotrin.”  Williams said the scrap metal was located in the western part of the compound, away from the eastern side where oil was stored. “It’s away from the sensitive areas of the refinery that are explosive in nature. As in any such contract there is heightened security... The company is following its normal procedures and is monitoring the employees — all of them — as they move in and out.” Williams said the tender contract had been properly awarded to Simon Johnson General Contractors, saying the fact they got the job suggested they were indeed eligible. Williams had also earlier noted: “If in the past they committed sins, one may atone.”