Police investigators told Newsday that they are working on information that Jhinoo was reportedly romantically involved with a co-worker at the ARC which incurred the wrath of a third party.

Yesterday, Delford Carabon, president of the ARC, told Newsday that Jhinoo last turned up for work on Tuesday and he did not appear distressed or concerned about anything.

He said he last saw and spoke with Jhinoo on Monday because Jhinoo was preparing a health and safety manual for the ARC and, during his 15 minute meeting with him he suggested some changes to the manual.

According to Carabon Jhinoo was practically working seven days a week and his heart was in the business of horse racing.

He said Jhinoo will be sadly missed and confirmed that there are rumours circulating among employees about the murder.

He said homicide officers interviewed staff yesterday and on Wednesday and he was awaiting the outcome of the investigation.

At about 8.45 pm on Wednesday, police officers on patrol saw a Hyundai vehicle parked between the Arima Race Track and a housing development.

The car’s engine was running, the air condition on and the driver slumped in the driver’s seat. When officers made a check, they found Jhinoo’s body with chop wounds. Nothing appeared to be stolen from him prompting police to believe that robbery was not the motive.

From as early as 8 am officers led by Senior Superintendent Boxhill and ASP Ajith Persad and including Sgts Andre Lopez, Charles Budree, Cpl Pino and others from the Portof- Spain CID, Port of Spain Division, Inter agency Task Force, Criminal Gang and Intelligence Unit cordoned off several areas in John John where they began digging the earth under the watchful eyes of residents.

The exercise was mounted as a result of information received that gang members from the area had been concealing their weapons underground.

When police arrived they saw evidence of freshly dug holes prompting them to believe that the weapons were removed, in some instances, from their hiding places.

At the end of the exercise, a shotgun and two pistols with 14 rounds of ammunition were discovered in a bushy area. During the exercise the residents welcomed the presence of the police and soldiers claiming that they were fed up with the gang violence, adding that the time had reached for the police to clean up their community and restore peace and a feeling of safety.

According to reports the student who attends a secondary school in the Port-of-Spain area reportedly left the school compound, unknown to teachers, and made her way to Petit Valley where she met the man.

While at the man’s home at around 1 pm, the man sexually assaulted the teen. The girl returned to her home and told a female relative what had transpired. A report was made to officers at the Four Roads Police Station and officers of the Child Protection Unit were alerted. Police were up to yesterday still searching for the suspect.

Ecouriers Limited, Websource, Jet Box International, Aeropostale, CSF Couriers and Caribbean Shipping Agencies have filed an application to have the courts review the decision the the government to implement the tax.

Representing the courier companies are attorneys Keith Scotland, Joel Roper, Gideon McMaster and Jacqueline Chang.

The are contending that the decision of the minister to implement the tax, which came into effect on October 19, last year following the presentation of the national budget, was irrational, wholly unreasonable and disproportionate to any aim of the State and was done without adequate consultation.

They also contend they were not given a fair opportunity to be heard prior to the imposition of the tax and this was in violation of the principles of procedural fairness.

They are seeking declarations that their rights were violated and that they were unfairly discriminated against.

The companies also want the court to declare that the actions of the minister and the manner in which his decision was made known was not reasonably justified and goes against the Fair Trading Act of 2006.

“We have heard that the Forwards are receiving money from a lot of ‘curious’ sources and they have more trucks on the road than they have members,” he claimed, yesterday, during a news conference at the Public Services Association’s (PSA’s) headquarters in Scarborough.

“We are saying it is not good for transparency and good governance and we are calling upon the political leader of Forwards to be transparent in her dealings and do not sell Tobago short for a fistful of dollars.” The PDP and the Tobago Forwards are among four political parties contesting the THA election.

Duke told reporters he learnt that a small jet, Cessna Citation 525, from St Vincent, landed at the Arthur NR Robinson International Airport, Tobago, at about 3.30pm on Monday, carrying a group of people of middle- east descent. “These persons are known in the gambling industry and they held a meeting with the most senior official of the Tobago Forwards, the political leader,” he claimed.

Duke claimed that coming out of the meeting were “certain things that placed Tobago, I would say, in a position as if it was for sale.” Contacted yesterday, Moore said she was in the middle of a meeting and could not address the issue at that time.

All efforts to have disciplinary action against them have so far failed. They have not showed up for classes again this new term and have been accused of “criminal neglect of their duty.” Newsday was told that due to the problem, on January 3 in a signed letter from the principal’s office to the Human Resource Department of the Ministry of Education (Secondary and Further), it was stated that the teachers “abandoned their duties by their failure to report to work from October 21, 2016 to present.” Newsday was shown several letters written and signed by the principal expressing disgust over their non attendance and the effect it has been having on students and other members of staff.

The teachers, it was said, last signed the school’s register on Monday October 24, 2016. The affected school was one of the many which was closed last term because of infrastructural problems.

The school, however, has since been deemed safe by officials of the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Authority.

The letters which were copied to the Teaching Service Commission (TSC), the District School Supervisor and the Chief Education Officer stated: “In light of these officers’ neglect of their duty of care towards our nation’s children and the disrespect they have meted out to the administration in the school, their colleagues, our key stakeholders, the parents of our students and those charged with the responsibility for supervision in this district, I am requesting that these officers be replaced with immediate effect.” In the document, the principal argued that the time lost by the students “can never be regained” and that they have had “to suffer not being taught during the time that these officers abandoned their charges.” As a result of their continued absence, the principal declared that other members of staff were now burdened with the task of “supervising these abandoned students” thereby “creating stresses and strains that were quite onerous.” Contacted yesterday, TTUTA’s president Lynsley Doodhai told Newsday he was unaware of the issue.

“I know the school had a problem and it was repaired but up to last night we had an executive council meeting and nothing like that about the teachers came up,” Doodhai said.

“We have US citizens living here. Some do not want to pay taxes. We have US citizens involved in financing of terrorism, money laundering – all criminal activities. You have citizens here with dual US and Trini citizenship.

They are doing the same thing,” he said.

In an interview with Newsday on Wednesday at the US Embassy in St Clair, Port-of-Spain, Estrada noted comments made in some quarters that he should stay out of the debate on the local Tax Information Exchange Bill that will pave the way to make this country FATCA compliant.

As the law affects US laws, he said, “I will continue to speak up to make sure that the right information about it is out there, instead of innuendoes, propaganda and political football.” Noting that FATCA deals with US citizens evading taxes, and accumulating illegal wealth overseas, he said, US banks may back away because they will not want to be a part of the penalty that will be imposed.

This in turn could affect people who may want to transfer money, buy and sell property, shop online, and import food stuff.

“It will affect this country in a big way. This has nothing to do with trampling on the rights of citizens,” he said, and “with big stick bullying, or the latest comment I heard about US colonialism and Trinidad and Tobago being treated like a banana republic.” The US was never a colonial master nor was it a colony, he said.

On Leader of the Opposition Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s comments that when US President Donald Trump takes office, the FATCA would be repealed, Estrada said, “I don’t know where the Opposition Leader is getting her information.”

In an interview with Newsday yesterday, Gopee-Scoon said, “I don’t expect anything untoward.” She likened the change of US administration from President Barack Obama to President- elect Trump to the impending “Brexit” of the United Kingdom from the European Union.

The former foreign affairs minister said Trump is a legitimately elected President. She expects Caricom to engage President Trump in due course, even as she will monitor the scene.

Gopee-Scoon said the burden of her parliamentary duties means she’s unlikely to watch his inauguration ceremony today but she’d catch up on the news later tonight.

Otherwise, given a recent media posting of a photo of her hugging Obama-impersonator, Reg Brown, under the title, “She’s done it again”, in reference to a previous photo of her and Obama, Gopee-Scoon said it was Obama who had hugged her.

Tabaquite MP Dr Surujrattan Rambachan, a former foreign affairs minister, offered his congratulations to Trump.

“I hope Trinidad and Tobago engages in early conversations with the new US administration, especially regarding security in the region and the cooperation that should obtain”.

He said the former People’s Partnership government had initiatives with the US. “It is very important for TT to strengthen ties with the US and to create new avenues for exporting

The couple was murdered on their bed at their Limefield Road, Cochrane Village home in Point Fortin. Anthony, who worked as a security officer, will be laid to rest at La Brea Cemetery following a funeral service at the Elite Funeral Home in Point Fortin on Monday evening .

Mohammed, however, will be laid to rest at the Cap-de-Ville Cemetery following a funeral service at the Point Fortin Open Bible church today .

Anthony ,29, died on the spot after being shot once to the head while Mohammed died at the Point Fortin Area Hospital after he was shot twice to the head .

Speaking with Newsday yesterday, a close female relative of Anthony said both families had decided to host separate funeral services. “We are seeing about Luenda and Mohammed’s family are organising his funeral service which will be held in Point Fortin.”she said .

The relative said family members, including Luenda’s only daughter, were still struggling to come to terms with her (Anthony’s) death .

“We are hurting and will continue to hurt as long as. I am dreading the day of her funeral and don’t know how her little girl will hold up, but I know it is going to be very hard for her,”she said .

Police said at 1 am on Tuesday, gunshots were heard inside the couple’s house .

Anthony’s mother Nicole Anthony, who lives nearby, heard the shots and ran to her daughter’s house to investigate .

On seeing the bodies of her daughter and son-in-law covered in blood on the bed, the woman screamed, causing other neighbours to run out to see what had happened. The couple, she said, was covered in blood .

Her daughter, she said, appeared dead while Mohammed groaned and said to call an ambulance .

Investigators later found a bag of marijuana in the roadway .

It is believed that in their haste to get away, the killers dropped the bag of marijuana .

Anthony was a security officer while Mohammed worked parttime as a labourer in the Point Fortin Borough Corporation .

No arrests have been made and investigations are continuing .

Erica Williams-Connell daughter of the late Dr. Eric Williams, first Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago and political leader of the People’s National Movement (PNM) from 1956 – 1981 began her tribute to her aunt reciting: “God saw you were getting tired And a cure was not to be, So he put his arms around you and whispered, ‘Come to Me’.

With tearful eyes we watched you,and saw you pass away.

Although we loved you dearly.

We could not make you stay.

A golden heart stopped beating, Hard working hands at rest.

God broke our hearts to prove to us, He only takes the best.

“That pretty much says it all for Joyce Wong Sang – Colin, as we all called her,” said Williams-Connell.

She stated, “You knew her as an icon, whose role in the culture of Trinidad and Tobago is unrivaled. She shepherded my late father’s Best Village programme – never again to be as vibrant or significant as in those first decades – which was initiated as a result of his Meet the People Tour of the 1960s.” Williams-Connell said after seeing firsthand how people lived and to get a personal feel for their many requirements, even as they would display handicrafts, stage cultural shows, and insist that the PM sample their culinary delights, she said: “My father realised that a programme such as Best Village could provide the ideal vehicle for raising the consciousness of our own nation vis-a-vis our national heritage. But it is one thing to have an idea, quite another to implement it. He chose Joyce Wong Sang to do so.” She added, “I believe everyone is born to do something. And that while most of us will die without discovering what that ‘thing’ is, fewer still will actually have the privilege of accomplishing it.

Joyce Wong Sang was one of those latter. Fulfilling the Best Village mandate, for more than a quarter century.” On a more personal note, she said, “Colin, and her husband George, also gave me the only home I could call my own in Trinidad for some 30 years, after my father died in 1981. I shall ever be grateful for that.” Williams-Connell ended by saying, “So we cherish her memory, we honour her life and we pray for forgiveness. You fought the good fight, Colin. You kept the faith.

You finished the race. Well done – thou good and faithful servant!” Before Williams-Connell, Wong Sang’s son Christopher Wong Sang told the gathering that his mom dedicated her life to promoting this country, putting all of her heart and soul into it. “She was blessed that way,” he said Christopher recalled Best Village groups being bussed to the Queen’s Park Savannah and their presentations highlighting the cultural mix in TT while the plays/ skits dealt with social life and issues being aired ‘live’ on TTT, the only television station at the time.

His mom played a pivotal role in organising the competition from 1963 to 1986.

He became a tad emotional when stating that the final four months of her life were gradual and painful. “Mom led a full life, was well traveled , served the country with pride and worked for the greater good without expecting reward. Rest Well,” he ended.

Deputy political leader of the PNM , Joan Yuille-Williams described Wong Sang as a pioneer, patriot and a woman of action.

She said, “Dr Williams had a vision and a task needed to be done and Joyce Wong Sang had the task of getting it done.

“Hers was a task of pioneers, clearing the ground and going no where anyone has gone before.

Joyce nailed those pathways all over TT. She knew ultimately her calling was to service of a people and later became a mentor to others.” Yuille-Williams then ensured that Wong Sang’s legacy would live on. Chief celebrant Fr Emmanuel Pierre also called Wong Sang a national icon, pioneer and patriot, and noted her commitment to work, dedication to duty and to the development of TT. He said, “If Joyce Wong Sang was the gift to this nation, just imagine who is the giver of this gift.” A musical interlude followed with Edwin “Crazy” Ayoung rendering verses from the Mighty Sparrow’s “Memories” and Merchant’s “Barataria Sweet, Mon Diablo Sweeter”.