Panday: UNC files stolen

Leader of the Opposition, Basdeo Panday, claimed that sensitive UNC party documents had been stolen in an armed robbery, just days before the July 14 local government elections.

 He was addressing a party rally at El Dorado on Tuesday night. Panday said: “Last night, Garvin Nicholas, senior legal advisor to the Leader of the Opposition was held up at gunpoint as he left Rienzi Complex and arrived home. His car and his computer were stolen and all the UNC files he had in his car.” Panday said while the car and computer had value to the robber(s), he could not understand their interest in the UNC documents. He listed persons who had got CEPEP contracts including relatives of government ministers and PNM party activists. Saying the PNM knew that in CEPEP it was involved in a “humungous act of corruption,” Panday said this was the reason the ruling party was now trying to change existing anti-corruption legislation. 

“The Attorney General announced the PNM will abolish the Integrity Commission, which was also confirmed by the Prime Minister. They will put in its place a Corruption Commission — under Bernard? under Deyalsingh? — to avoid the consequences of the vast corruption in which they were engaged.” Saying the PNM, unlike the NAR and UNC, had never before brought anti-corruption legislation, Panday accused the PNM: “It will be legislation to neutralise the corruption fuction so they can’t be brought to justice.” He slammed the Commission of Inquiry into the Piarco Airport expansion, saying Commission chairman Justice Clinton Bernard had so far earned $700,000, while Clive Phelps, his son and his law firm had earned a total of $1.2 million, and attorney Theodore Guerra and an associate had together been paid over $1 million. “That’s how they run commissions of inquiry!”

Panday criticised Prime Minister Patrick Manning for having asked other Caricom governments to urge the Opposition to implement the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) as this country’s highest appellate court. Panday mocked: “Have you ever heard of that?! Don’t put Owen Arthur and PJ (PJ Patterson) in trouble. Come and talk to me yourself. Do you think Owen Arthur and PJ are stupid?” Casting doubt on the CCJ, he said the Caribbean did not have an enviable record of dealing with discrimination, saying member States had stayed quiet and let Forbes Burnham rape Guyana. Panday concluded by urging voters to follow the example of Jamaica, whose voters had recently given the Opposition JLP a victory to send a protest to the ruling PNP.