Jack Warner slams Dookeran

Panday, who was convicted on three charges of failure to declare his London Bank account to the Integrity Commission, was on Monday jailed for two years with hard labour.

However, at an emergency meeting of the party’s executive committee at Rienzi Complex, Couva on Monday night, Dookeran was excluded by the executive committee from addressing an impromptu meeting of activists and supporters.

Dookeran, who was excluded at the expense of former deputy political leader, Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, and not accorded a seat at the head table, left the meeting just after 7pm.

This did not go down well with a handful of Dookeran supporters who loudly described calls of unity as a “sham” and “hypocritical” saying the political leader was sidelined by executive members with their own personal agendas.

However, during his turn at the podium, Warner said the decision to exclude Dookeran was not done by vice-chairman, Vasant Bharat, but by the jailed chairman (Panday) himself.

“Every single speaker on this platform here have the approval of the chairman, Basdeo Panday,” he said.

Warner added, “And let me tell you also, who you eh see here, he eh approve.”

“Because Basdeo Panday say that you can’t be a fair weather friend and official, we have been with him in the courts through thick and thin. But there are some of us who haven’t done that and never did that,” he said.