DWIGHT LEWIS, an 18-year-old student of the Arima Senior Comprehensive School who played professional football with Jabloteh Junior Football team under 20, was stabbed to death following a bottle-pelting incident-outside an Arima bar early yesterday. His murder is the 140th for the year so far. The teen’s father Clarence Lewis suffered a massive heart attack at his La Horquetta home early yesterday on learning that his son had died and was rushed to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital where he was resting in stable condition. An eyewitness to the stabbing death told Sunday Newsday that Lewis had accompanied him and a group of friends to Arima on Friday night. He claimed that they brought drinks, limed and then they returned to La Horquetta.

Late Friday night Lewis was invited to go to Arima on another lime and he went. Report revealed that Lewis and others purchased drinks from a bar at Queen Street, and they were liming when someone threw a bottle injuring a man with a rasta hairstyle. The man reportedly walked up to Lewis and accused him of throwing the bottle but Lewis pleaded his innocence. Reports revealed that the enraged man struck Lewis with a beer bottle and a struggle ensued. The man allegedly took the broken bottle and stabbed Lewis at the right side of the chest. He collapsed in a pool of blood. A party of officers led by Sgt Wesley Moore, Cpl Jones and others went to the scene.

Lewis was rushed to the Arima Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Police have since issued a warrant for the arrest of a 22-year old man of Maturita. Officers carried out a search for the man yesterday but he was reportedly in hiding. Azard Khan, Secretary of Jabloteh Football team said that the death of Lewis was a great loss. He said that Lewis had been with Jabloteh since he was 13 years old, and he said that he was an extremely good player. “He was always respectful, and he had a great future ahead of him in terms of  football,” said Khan.

A 56-YEAR-old hospital employee on his way home from a wake was struck dead at the San Fernando Bypass on Friday night. Carlton Foster, was a short distance away from his home at Vernon Joseph Street, at St Joseph Village, when he was killed. Foster was employed as a labourer at the San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH) for the last 22 years. Meanwhile, police were tight-lipped on investigations into the fatal accident, and would not disclose whether it was a hit and run accident, or if someone had been detained. Foster’s wife, Susanna, 46, said the police were hostile to her when she inquired how her husband of eight years had died. Susanna told Sunday Newsday: “When I started to ask if it was a hit and run, one of them told me to ‘shut-up.’”

The woman, a mother of one, recalled that when the family got the tragic news around 10.30 pm on Friday night, she did not yet know if her husband was dead. Susanna told Sunday Newsday: “When we heard what happened my daughter, my granddaughter and I ran out the house. We saw him lying on the ground, his foot was bleeding and his hand was twisted. So I thought he just got some lashes.” The deceased’s wife said an ambulance took him to the San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH), when a nurse told her Foster had died. Still reeling in shock from the loss of her husband, Susanna said her husband had not planned to go out on Friday night, but changed his mind at the last minute. Mon Repos Police are continuing investigations.

The owner of a Chase Village gas station was beaten and robbed of $100,000 by four men posing as customers of the gas station. Reports revealed that around 4 pm on Friday, four men walked into the Chase Village NP Service Station and asked to purchase gas. One of the men presented a keg to one of the employees, while the three others went to the cashier to purchase soft drinks. Minutes later, the four men armed with a gun, went to the office where Davion Mahabirsingh and sales clerk Tracey Ann Grant were seated. They pointed the gun at the two and ordered them to lie on the ground. The gunman ordered Mahabirsingh to hand over a bag containing the $100,000.

That money represented sales from the entire week. Mahabirsingh reportedly resisted and was beaten about the body by the four men who were eventually able to secure the bag containing the cash. Mahabirsingh was taken to the Chaguanas Health Centre where he was treated. A party of officers from the Chaguanas CID led by Sgt Dennis Housend, Ag Sgt Ajith Persad and PCs Basraj, Williams, Guelmo and Francis went to the scene along with fingerprint experts and carried out investigations. Police believe that the suspects used a stolen car to flee the scene.

A 44-year-old Champs Fleurs man is warded in stable condition at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital after being shot in the right side of the chest. Reports revealed that around 2.50 am yesterday, Daniel Mulzac was at One Love Recreation Club, Champs Fleurs, when he had an argument with a man known to him. Mulzac was shot in the right side of the chest by the gunman who ran away. PC Remy of the St Joseph Police Station is investigating.

Doctors fear that if Stephen Hunte succumbs to a third stroke, it would mean death for the twelve-year-old. Stephen is a victim of the rare disease called Moya Moya — a disease which causes blood vessels leading to the brain to narrow and close, and is in dire need of surgery which costs an estimated US$60,000. His is the only known surviving case in the Western Hemisphere. Cases of the disease were first found in Japan in the 1960s and later in the United States, Europe, Australia and Africa. Moya Moya disease, which primarily affects children, adolescents and young adults, is accompanied by muscular weakness or paralysis affecting one side of the body, memory loss, involuntary movements and vision problems. Its cause is unknown and no cure has been found. Stephen experiences all of the symptoms. He has lost his vision, he is paralysed on the right side and needs assistance in walking, and has severe memory loss. “He doh remember my name, his name, anybody’s name. He says ‘yes’, ‘no’ and if he wants something he would say ‘umm’ and point,” said his mother Gloria Maharaj, 39, a single parent of two who resides in Kelly Village, Caroni.

The once very active, lover of cricket and “good eater,” Gloria said, “hasn’t seen the sunlight in months.” Stephen was admitted to hospital on two occasions. In the first instance, he spent three weeks at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) after experiencing a cerebrovascular accident (stroke) in mid March. (Stephen is a standard five student of Fatima RC Primary School. He was not able to sit his SEA exams.) Three days later, he was again admitted to hospital as a result of having a second stroke. He was released after five weeks. “The Ambulance brought my son home in a stretcher. They said they could do nothing for him,” lamented Gloria. Currently, he is awaiting surgery, but needs funds for securing a plane ticket to the US as well as funds to cover the cost of the surgery. One of three surgeries Stephen must undergo includes Intracranial-Extracranial Bypass Graft which involves the connection of normal blood vessels in the scalp to blood vessels on the surface of the brain in an effort to increase the blood flow to the brain. Dr Victor Terapelli, paediatrician at EWMSC and one of a team of doctors who attended to Stephen said that his illness was confirmed as Moya Moya by Dr Rasheed Adams. “He needs bypass surgery. If the blood vessels in the brain keep on haemorrhaging, it can damage the brain. The surgery can stop it at some stage.” Dr Adams said that while there are doctors in Trinidad who have been trained to perform the operation, “we do not have the neurosurgical equipment and an ICU for that.” “We treated him for his stroke. His initial stroke was without bleeding, his blood supply was cut-off and the second one, there was bleeding. He also suffered seizures and fits and we treated him for that,” said Dr Adams.

Since local doctors have been unable to perform the operation, surgeons were sought in the US. Stephen’s father, Leo Stoute, who resides in Brooklyn, New York has been able to make successful contact with neurosurgeon Dr Christopher S Ogilvy of the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston who is willing to do the operation. A date for Stephen’s evaluation in the US was set for August 1, 2003, but due to a delay in acquiring necessary documentation to present to the US Embassy for a visa and lack of funds, a date has to be rescheduled. “We are waiting on a letter from Stephen’s insurance company, Aetna US Healthcare Insurance, to let us know how much we can secure for the operation,” Gloria told Sunday Newsday. “Dr Ogilvy said he (Stephen) could hold out a bit but depending on how severe the haemorrhaging to the brain.” Gloria was alerted of signs that her son was ill when he complained of severe headaches. “Before his first stroke he complained three times of the headaches at night. I gave him Panadol and soak his head thinking is a normal something. Most of the headaches, though, he experienced at school. But it was a day while playing cricket the headache started, then his neck started to pain him, so I took him to Mt Hope Paediatrics. They said it was exertion,” she said. When the headaches continued she took Stephen to a private medical practitioner, later the same day, who “treated him for food poisoning.” “The next day the headaches were more severe and I took him to the hospital. They said it was a muscular something because of the neck pain… I took him by another private doctor who said it was stress… But it was two days later when he (Stephen) said  ‘mummy meh hand’, he couldn’t stand, he couldn’t move his right hand and foot and then we took him back to the hospital where they warded him,” said Gloria.

A CT scan and an MRI showed Stephen suffered vasculitis of cerebral vessels consistent with Moya Moya pattern. His condition improved and Stephen was released from hospital. “Two days later he told me he was going for a walk, but then he met some friends and played cricket. I noticed when he came home his eyes were red… By 2.45 the next morning he started screaming ‘ow, ow mummy my head!’ and we took him back to the hospital. They took another CT scan which showed a swelling to the brain. He had gone back to square one — he couldn’t eat or walk. A third CT scan showed a frontal haemorrhage extending into the ventricles. “By that time I had left my job and I was staying with him at the hospital,” said a teary-eyed Gloria. Gloria used to fill a hundred 100lbs flour bags a day with manure, for 50 cents per bag. But her job as cleaner at MTS PowerGen, Pt Lisas was cut short when Stephen fell ill. “All he did was sleep. I prayed and read the Bible…” She recalled that Dr Nunez “put me to sit and he said ‘mums, your child is suffering with a disease called Moya Moya. To understand what it is go on the Internet.’ He said my child needs surgery and that no doctors could handle him. He said I have to look for one abroad and that I would get trouble in doing so seeing how rare his case is.

“That day I cried from Mt Hope to Port-of-Spain; when you hear no cure yuh think that is the end of your child… If it wasn’t for God, St Ann’s pick me up already!” Gloria exclaimed. She wrote to the Ministry of Health for assistance. The Welfare Office responded. One of Stephen’s Stardard five classmates came to his assistance and is helping out with foodstuff. “So I am asking for whatever help I could get…” She ensures that Stephen gets some therapy by “rubbing him with sweet oil and giving him exercise. If I don’t do that his hands will get stiff. My advice to parents — they need to be careful that when children complain of pain whether it is their belly or head to check it. My child is a victim of this rare disease and I am forced to take him out of the country. It’s a pity I cannot find a doctor in my own country to see about my son.”

LIBERIAN PRESIDENT Charles Taylor, who is due to give up the presidency tomorrow, has interests in a Port-of-Spain business organisation. This was the revelation yesterday from one of the embattled president’s Trinidadian relatives, June St Louis who claimed that through his Tobagonian-born father Charles Frederick Taylor Sr, the Liberian President was involved in the operations of a Port-of-Spain businessplace. However St Louis was uncertain about what type of business it was. She told Sunday Newsday there was nothing exclusive about last week’s newspaper reports of Taylor’s “Trini roots” because media interest on that subject dated back to 1997 and her mother Jane (Taylor’s first cousin) has the articles to prove that. St Louis revealed that during the last six years, Taylor sent money and newspapers to his relatives in Trinidad via a female relative who made regular trips to the Liberian capital of Monrovia during that time period. She added that this relative died two years ago.

Asked about her feelings about Taylor’s resignation, St Louis replied:“I have no thoughts about that.” She expressed no interest in the local media frenzy being whipped up about Taylor. “I would like to see him to go back to our roots,” she said.  St Louis stated that in the interim she would like to meet with Taylor’s third wife, Trinidadian Bernice Yolanda Emmanuel, and tell her that she is not Taylor’s sole relative in this country. She added that Taylor has relatives in San Juan and Gasparillo and for her part, she wants Taylor to tell her about their family in Africa, in order to pass on that knowledge to future generations of their clan. Taylor will hand over power tomorrow to a transitional government under Liberian Vice-President Moses Blah and leave the country, ending a three-year battle by rebel forces to oust him from power and 14 years of war in the West African nation. He has also been charged by a United Nations-backed war crimes court for arming and training guerilla forces in neighbouring Sierra Leone in exchange for diamonds. A peacekeeping force, comprising soldiers from the United States and several African nations, is currently in Liberia to ensure a peaceful transition of government and assist in the restoration of democracy there.

THE COUNTRY’S latest road victim Finbar Nanton is an avid Newsday reader who loved to help everyone around him according to the man’s sister Joan Browne. Speaking to Sunday Newsday at her Chowquan Avenue, Diego Martin home, Browne said that they were unaware of Nanton’s death until around 4 pm on Friday afternoon when a family friend heard  news of a road accident along the Diego Martin Highway on Thursday night. Browne said that they started to “add up the facts” and realised that the accident victim could have been their beloved Finbar. She said that the realisation he might be dead came as a great shock to the family. A somber Browne told Sunday Newsday that she thought that he might have been in an accident, but never for once imagined that he might be dead. Nanton, 58, of Long Circular Road, St James lived with his brother Richard and his three nephews Brent, Maurice and Ryan and was well known and liked in the area.

Browne said that Nanton was also favourite in her neighbourhood and would always bring sapodillas from Long Circular for her neighbours. He would also pick mangoes from her yard and carry home to share with his neighbours. Describing Nanton as a person who liked a good lime, Browne said that he would often go to the panyards to listen to some good steelpan music and would often attend meetings held by the Charismatic RC Prayer Group at Emmanuel Community on Rosalind Street. On the day of the accident Nanton spent the day at his sister’s home, after which they attended 6 pm mass at the Nativity Church at Chrystal Stream Road. Following the mass Browne left her brother on the corner of Chrystal Stream road and went home and that was the last time she saw him alive.

THE WIFE of 34-year-old Miguel ‘Goat’ Williams, who according to police reports, was killed in a shootout with police on Friday, is calling for an investigation into his death. Wendy Ann Gomes, 31, the mother of seven of Williams’ eight children, disputed reports that her husband shot at police, but believes he was killed in cold blood. Describing her husband as a good father to his children, Gomes cried: “They take the bread out of my children’s mouth.” Gomes, who is unemployed, said that she now has to care for her seven children, the youngest of whom is six months old, and the oldest 15 years. The woman said the person who spent the last moments with Williams, the driver of the car in which he (Williams) was a passenger, spoke to her about the confrontation with the police when her husband met his death.

Gomes told Sunday Newsday that the driver, whom she knows only as “Kirk”, told her that on Friday while he and Williams were driving along Main Road in Macaulay, Claxton Bay, they were suddenly confronted by a party of mobile police. According to Kirk, Gomes said, the policemen blocked both sides of the roadway with their vehicles, and Williams panicked. The driver told the slain man’s wife that Williams opened the front passenger door of the car and attempted to escape by running off into the cane fields. One of the policemen, Kirk told Gomes, approached their vehicle and instructed him (Kirk) to drive off, and as he obliged the order Kirk said he heard gun shots ring out behind him. Gomes said when the news of the shooting reached her she was still hoping that her husband was alive.

Her hopes were shattered when she viewed his body at the San Fernando mortuary and saw eight gunshot wounds about his neck, chest and upper body. Gomes, who has his full name tattooed on her left arm, described Williams as a family man. The grieving wife said: “The first thing he thought about was his children. Whatever I went through I went through with him.” While admitting that her husband “was not saint” she was quick to add that after his release from Remand Yard in March he tried to turn his life around and had returned to his career as a pipe-fitter. Now the 31-year-old mother of seven fears that her family is on the breadline. She is pleading with the Prime Minister, National Security Mi-nister and Commiss-ioner of Police to help her get  answers to the many questions which the violent death of her husband has left her asking. 

 

 

REPEATED ATTEMPTS by the former chairman of the Integrity Commission to have Government lay in Parliament, the forms for public officials to declare their assets and income were met with indifference from the Prime Minister, Sunday Newsday learned yesterday. Justice Gerard des Iles whose three-year term as chairman expired July 19, yesterday told Sunday Newsday he wrote Prime Minister Patrick Manning three times earlier this year, asking him to have the forms laid in Parliament. He said he reminded Manning that the Integrity in Public Life Act 2000 required that the declaration forms, which des Iles noted, had been ready since September 2001, should be placed before Parliament for its affirmative resolution. Des Iles said he got no response from the Prime Minister nor from his Permanent Secretary to whom he also spoke on the telephone. The only reply came in the form of a letter from a junior secretary, three or four months later, informing him that his three letters were receiving the attention of the Prime Minister. He described Government’s failure to lay the forms as “a breach of the law as it stood.”

Contacted yesterday for comment on the matter, former Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj strongly condemned the Prime Minister’s failure to respond to the three letters from the Commission’s former chairman. “This provides cogent and compelling evidence that the Manning administration does not want the Integrity Commission to function,” Maharaj said. Maharaj, who is seeking to have the courts compel the Government to enforce the Act he piloted when in office, further stated that Manning’s lack of  response to des Iles brought into question whether the country would ever have the benefit of an Integrity Commission. He also warned that Government’s “overriding of Parliament and its putting itself before the Constitution and the law was a serious precedent and a recipe for tyranny and dictatorship.” Yesterday, Maharaj also issued a press release on a related matter, that is, the failure of the Government to appoint a new Commission since the term of  the last one ended in mid July. “The public statements to the effect that the government has suspended the Constitution of Trinidad and Tobago by not appointing members of the Integrity Commission seriously threatens the enjoyment of the rule of law in Trinidad and Tobago,” he said.

Maharaj further stated that the non-appointment of the Integrity Commission demonstrated that the Manning Administration did not intend to provide clean and constitutional government. “This means that the country does not have an Integrity Commission and the Cabinet without the approval of Parliament, which requires the support of the Opposition, has repealed Section 138 of the Constitution which mandates that an Integrity Commission shall be appointed,” he noted. Maharaj recalled that the PNM in Opposition had given full support to the new Integrity Act. “The Cabinet must obey the Constitution until the Integrity Act is repealed or amended by Parliament,” he said. “The Integrity Commission must function to safeguard the public interest against Ministerial and official corruption.” Meanwhile Justice des Iles declined comment on the failure of the Government to appoint a new Commission. He confirmed however, that he had written to President Max Richards to inform him that the term of the commissioners had expired. The Government’s failure to appoint a new commission follows repeated statements by Attorney General Glenda Morean that Cabinet is to decide whether to dismantle the entire Commission and replace it with an anti-corruption body. That decision is expected this week. How the PNM will do so without the support of the Opposition, Morean has not explained as, in order for the Integrity Commission to be set aside, the Act would have to be repealed, legal sources said yesterday. This requires a special majority, which the PNM does not currently enjoy, they added.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning was unavailable for comment yesterday, but he has always waxed warm about his Government’s intentions to promote integrity in public life. Speaking in March 2003 to a reporter from the Washington-based International Special Reports, a group, which compiles country reports for Washington’s political and commercial decision makers, the PM declared: “We are basing our new society on integrity.” He noted that the Government of the United States could assist TT considerably if it so wished “in treating some of the lapses of integrity that have taken place over the last few years.” He concluded: “It must be known that Trinidad and Tobago is open for business, but Trinidad and Tobago is not for sale. Integrity is a very high priority for us.” The Opposition UNC has accused the PNM of hypocrisy.

A PRINCES Town magistrate ordered a Tableland man to do one week community service after the man pleaded guilty to catching birds during the closed hunting season. Magistrate Suimongol Ramsaran also gave Deonath Ramsubhag, of Lothians Road, the option to pay a fine of $700. Ramsubhag, who is unemployed, chose to do one week’s community service.

The defendant was charged after he was found by policemen of the South Special Unit, led by Forest Ranger Andy Singh, in a forested area near Pooran Trace, Tableland on Tuesday. The officers caught Ramsubagh red-handed in the process of capturing birds. The officers also found two semps and a parakeet in a cage nearby. Police seized the birds and when Ramsubhag was brought to court on Wednesday, the birds were produced as exhibits in the case. Magistrate Ramsaran allowed the birds to be returned to the defendant.