“Nowhere can you pass a validation act to validate the breach of a law. When you breach a law, you stand the consequences.

I am sure that some group, some individuals, or some groups of individuals will challenge it in the court. It has serious constitutional implications,” he said.

Charles, a former THA chief secretary and leader of The Platform of Truth (TPT) told Newsday yesterday he heard that the Parliament validated a day for the elections, but maintained that today’s election date contravenes Section 33 of the Act because it is being held 20 days from Nomination Day to election day, and not the 21 days stipulated by law.

“They have compounded an error. You can pass a law to validate the action of somebody, but you cannot pass a law to validate a breach of a law,” he said.

The only way out of the mistake, he said, “was for them to go to Parliament, and extend the day by one day. Make it the 24th and that would have corrected the breach.” He continued, “Had they done so they would not have breached the Act.

I thought that is what they were going to do.” Charles, who made public the error, said that from the inception, he warned that if the election was not postponed or extended by a day, anyone could have challenged it because their constitutional rights were being affected.

Even putting it off for a day, he said, could have been challenged because there are political parties in Tobago that could not take part in the elections once they recognised that the law was breached.

The TPT and the Tobago Liberation Movement are not involved in the elections, he said, because of the breach.

According to reports, the man checked into the hotel on Saturday night and was supposed to check out by 10 am yesterday. However when cleaners went to tidy the room, they found the man in an unconscious state prompting them to believe he was dead.

Officers of the Tunapuna Police Station were contacted. Upon their arrival at the hotel room, they discovered that the man had a pulse and medical personnel were called to the scene.

The man was subsequently taken to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope.

Police also discovered a quantity of cocaine in the room where the man was found.

Yesterday the man was placed under police guard in the hospital and is expected to be charged with several offences upon his recovery.

According to reports, officers, led by Senior Supt. Boxhill, ASP Ajith Persad and Corporal Anthony Williams, began the exercise at around midday on Saturday, which resulted in several persons being detained for a series of break-ins and robberies in the PoS area.

The same team of officers then went to Garth Road, Princes Town where they seized a stolen roulette machine that had been illegally removed from a PoS casino.

The officers then raided several drug dens in the PoS area, as part of an anti-crime initiative aimed at dealing with crime in the capital city. Several vehicles were also searched during the exercise for illegal arms, ammunition and drugs.

Baptiste-Primus announced her timeline to Remy while addressing the 70th anniversary thanksgiving celebration of the Credit Union and Cooperative League, at Signature Hall, Montrose, on Saturday evening. She said, “I have reviewed and commented on the draft policy one week ago and this revised document will be shared with you.

And Mr president, I am giving you early warning. When the draft policy reaches you, you have 14 long whole days to comment on that draft and to forward your additional views before the final draft policy document is signed off and submitted to Cabinet. And my timeframe, Mr President, that draft policy must be submitted to Cabinet on or before the 28 of February in the year of our Lord, 2017.” Remy expressed his concern to Newsday yesterday about the timeline given, saying, “We were supposed to get this document since October last year and now that the document is supposedly completed, we are now seeing a tight timeline to have it completed.

We believe if the document was completed by the ministry earlier, it would have allowed all parties to have ample time to review. We believe it is not adequate for the movement and we will take the necessary action to see how we could get an extension to move this thing forward.” The Credit Union and Cooperative Bills of 2014, which is intended to replace the Co-operatives Society Act of 1971, sparked protest by credit unions in 2015 when it was first proposed by Government in February of 2015. The credit unions protested the Credit Union Bill’s intention to have credit unions supervised by the Central Bank instead of the Commissioner for Co-operative Development.

They proposed that both credit unions and Cooperatives be supervised by the same Commissioner for Cooperative Development.

In her address, Baptiste-Primus congratulated the League on its 70th anniversary, saying that it has “grown from very humble beginnings to be a force to be reckoned with in the financial sector.”

He said parents need to train their children to be tough so that they can handle what someone says to them.

“Too many times, children find themselves in trouble because they resort to violence to deal with bad things said to them,” Gomez said.

“Therefore, it is important to avoid raising ‘eggs’ and raise children to be tough and not naive.” He also commented on the fact that too many members of the Defence Force, while they love their God, are drifting away from the Godly precepts in the National Pledge.

He explained, “Since we were children, we were taught to be selfless. But the opposite has taken hold of the country…That is not to say that we don’t have selfless people around, but it’s not honoured.” Speaking more generally, he said that the word “sacrifice” was another word that has lost value in present day Trinidad and Tobago, since most want everything now.

At the official opening of the branch on Saturday evening, Campus Principal Brian Copeland noted that Republic Bank had been part of the campus for over 50 years.

He said the bank was aware that education was for the preservation and growth of society.

“Their ethos is like ours: that education is meant to ensure survival, individually and collectively.

No bank could have achieved as much as Republic has if it weren’t a learning institution that constantly seeks to reinvent itself in tune with changing times,” he said.

Copeland noted that the new branch was just the first part of a private sector-university partnership which started with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in 2007.

Other steps would include developing the existing campus quadrangle, a new building for the Creative and Festival Arts, and a revenue-generating Northern Plaza at the entrance of the campus.

Copeland also noted that, for the past seven years, the bank partnered with UWI hosting the “World of Work” programme for final year students.

“As you see, our private sector/university partnership with Republic Bank goes way beyond merely mouthing the words, “corporate social responsibility,” he said.

Nigel Baptiste, Republic Bank Managing Director, agreed, stating that, with the opening of the Campus branch, the bank recommitted itself to always be of service to the stakeholders of UWI, to keep the university community at the forefront in terms of banking solutions, and to the success of all stakeholders.

“We are recommitting to the values that we hold dear as an organisation.

“Our core values of integrity, results orientation, respect for the individual, professionalism, and customer focus.

We are recommitting to partnering with the university to foster youth empowerment through education and exposure,” he said.

Baptiste stated that the construction and outfitting of the building was a $75 million investment and that he hoped the branch would be the flagship in digital banking and environmental responsibility.

In a statement emailed to the media yesterday, Bertrand said based on his “rough valuation”, TCL’s diluted share value should be TT $7.71 while its undiluted share value should be TT $11.56.

Noting that the board’s 40-page Supplemental Directors’ Circular; published in the newspapers on Saturday, “revealed a “Fair Price Range” of $5.60 to $6.18,” Bertrand maintained that “their range is too low.” “(I) stick to my rough valuation, using TCL’s BDP (Best Demonstrated Performance) EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) of US $85 million with a valuation multiple of 7, to give a diluted share (375 million shares) value of TT$7.71 and undiluted share (250 million) value of TT$11.56,” Bertrand said.

The Supplemental Directors’ Circular included a Fairness Opinion from accounting firm, Ernst and Young (EY). The firm valued TCL shares at between TT$5.60 and TT$6.18 per share in a January 18 Fairness Opinion requested by the TCL board.

As reported in the Sunday Newsday, EY refused however to make an assessment of whether this is a fair price for the shares and have advised shareholders to obtain advice from investment professionals or lawyers. The company’s board has also directed shareholders to do the same, even though it has told them, outright, to reject Cemex’s amended offer made through its subsidiary, Sierra Trading. Saturday also saw the publication of an advertisement by Cemex, in which the Mexican building materials giant announced that it had surpassed the 50.01 percent threshold of shareholders acceptances. This represents one of the conditions needed to be met to complete its bid to acquire full control of TCL, something which Bertrand said “means that there will be no further increases in the offer price.”

“However,” Bertrand added, “one has to wonder about the theatrics of the move from $4.50 to $5.07, as if one examines Cemex’s “Availability of Funds statement” in its December 5th 2016 offer, Cemex had borrowed US$100 million to purchase 133 million shares suggesting that they intended making a final offer of around $5.13 but were just playing the game depending on shareholders’ resistance.”

Bertrand, who is also a TCL shareholder, described as “amusing” the decision of TCL Chairman, Wilfred Espinet, “to accept Cemex’s offer of $5.07”, saying this goes to the heart of his past criticisms of the Espinet-led board “who squandered all leverage by giving away the 20 percent Limit on shareholding for $2.90 per share to Cemex.”

The cement ‘war’ has being ongoing for about a year between TCL and its first competitor in 31 years, ‘Rock Hard’, with the latter’s product being sold at a few hardwares across Trinidad and Tobago. In a full-page advertisement in a daily newspaper published on Saturday, TCL issued a warning to local consumers to “carefully consider when purchasing, as imported cement is now over 120 days old and is currently being sold in the market.

Best practice recommends that cement more than 90 days old should not be used based on both European and American Standards for bagged cement.” TCL went on to advise the public that a significant amount of strength in cement begins to weaken, after four to six weeks of storage in paper bags in normal conditions. In adverse weather conditions such as in high humidity, bagged cement loses more strength. TCL went on to state that based on American standards, cement remaining at retail locations for more than three months, should be re-tested and rejected if it fails to meet applicable requirements.

Mayor Joel Martinez described the initiative as “fantastic,” noting that the intermittent rainfall did not stop the hundreds of volunteers, individuals and organisations from getting the job done.

Volunteers included groups from organisations such as the Cadets, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and Radio Emergency Associated Communications Team (REACT).

“All over Port-of-Spain we are coordinating contractors and volunteers.

There is a lot of equipment on the roads but everyone, including the residents, are quite enthusiastic,” he said.

Martinez said the launch got off to an early start, with support from the Minister of Rural Development and Local Government, Kazim Hosein, and Minister in the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs, Stuart Young.

He noted that a building located at the back of the Central Market, owned by National Flour Mills, was demolished by some of the crew, and the site was in the process of being cleaned up. He said the building was sometimes occupied by the homeless, but that it was unsafe.

The work that was started included the removal of derelict vehicles, cleaning garbage from rivers, clearing abandoned lots, de-silting parts of the East Dry River, and replacing all the blown bulbs in the city.

“A lot of people are taking the opportunity to remove their bigger pieces of junk from their homes and we are sure that it would continue throughout the week,” he said.

Martinez added that the Port of Spain City Corporation was coordinating with several stakeholders including WASA, TTEC, and the business community who, he said, came out and supported with volunteers as well as financial assistance.

Police officers of the Arouca Criminal Investigation Department (CID) executed a search warrant at the immigration officer’s apartment at about 5 pm and allegedly seized the guns which, according to a police report, each contained six rounds of ammunition.

According to the report, Inspector Birch led a team of officers, which included Sgt Pascall, Sgt Pitt, PCs Lalchan and Mohammed, to the apartment and, in conducting a search, found the guns in a bedroom. The immigration officer and the 20-year-old woman were arrested and taken to the Arouca CID where, up to yesterday, they remained in custody.

The report stated that both women are expected to be charged today for possession of arms and ammunition and will appear tomorrow before a magistrate in Arima.