UNC MP Gerald Yetming yesterday slammed Prime Minister Patrick Manning for saying that (Venezuela PM Hugo) “Chavez was responsible” for the state of crime in this country.

Manning had stated on Thursday that there was a link between the increase in the number of guns in Trinidad and Tobago and the political disturbances in Venezuela. But Yetming mocked the PM’s conclusions as he spoke on the Income Tax Amendment Bill in the House of Representatives. “Crime is everybody else’s problem but the government’s problem. It ain’t Chin Lee’s. It is now Chavez. Chavez is so powerful a man that he sits down in Venezuela and creating an increase in crime in Trinidad and Tobago,” Yetming derided. “Through Pier One,” Panday quipped. The UNC MP accused government of “terrorising, traumatising and brutalising” people, including Caroni workers. Noting that the cost of the Caroni VSEP —  excluding the topping-up of pension — was a one-off payment of $400 million, Yetming pointed out that government was prepared to put the same amount of money every year into CEPEP. “Where is the equity, where is the social conscience?” he asked. He added that government was getting the reputation of using the resources of the state, financial and otherwise, to brutalise people. He quoted extensively from a column by Newsday’s Editor Suzanne Mills, which said, among other things, that CEPEP was created to cultivate only one crop, the Balisier. He said government was using State funds to favour its own. By contrast, he said, a government agency, NHA, had bulldozed farm lands at Curepe. He pointed to the incident involving Peake’s Industries which was forced to take out a full-page advertisement talking about the “open and excessive” use of force by state-owned Chagaramas Development Authority “over a minor matter of rent.”

Yetming said the Income Tax Amendment Bill, which seeks to increase the tax exemption on severance benefits from $100,000 to $300,000  would only benefit 2,000 of the 10,000 Caroni workers. It would not relieve the trauma, terror  being imposed on the people of Caroni, he said. He said if government wanted to downsize sugar and create the Sugar Manufacturing Company of Trinidad and Tobago,  it should have put in train the process of rehiring some of the Caroni workers to work for the company, before implementing the VSEP plan. “Offer 1,300 jobs from Caroni and at least eliminate the trauma and terror for 1,300 people,” he said. Land could also have been offered for cultivation if the company needed more cane farmers to produce the 70,000 tons of sugar. Government could also offer these lands to other workers as well and help in the transition from workers to independent agriculturalists. He said the country would not sit idly while the government continued its policy of discrimination and brutalisation. Yetming also criticised Manning’s Caricom agenda. He said Manning, who would be going to Caricom to discuss the establishment of a Regional Stabilisation Fund, wanted to help St Vincent which had an unemployment rate of 30 percent, while leaving nationals of this country jobless. “While he is seeking to facilitate the economies of the region, he is sending home 10,000 at Caroni,” Yetming said, adding that the story was the same with BWIA. Yetming also stated that he expected a “massive and blatant cover-up” when the Linquist report on WASA is presented, because Prime Minister Patrick Manning allowed so much time to pass between when the revelations were first made and when the inquiry began.

POLICE again questioned the father of six-year-old Marc Prescott yesterday for further details about the single conversation he had with his son’s kidnappers, who had demanded a $150,000 ransom, hours after the youngster was snatched on May 14.

According to reports, around 10 am  a party of San Fernando CID officers led by ASP Dyo Mohammed, went to Prescott’s home at Edinburg Crescent, Scotland Drive, Cocoyea, where they asked his father Wayne, 38,  to accompany them to the station. On arrival there, Prescott was asked to give details about conversations he may have had with other persons regarding his son’s abduction. Sources said the police would be questioning other relatives, as part of their investigations. Officers said they are “working feverishly,” to find Marc, who has been kept in captivity for almost a month now.

Police sources told Newsday that earlier this week a photograph of Marc was shown to employees at the Piarco International Airport and the Immigration Departments but no one recalled ever seeing the child at the airport. Investigators believe that there is a strong possibility that the boy was whisked out of the country, even though he does not have a passport, since the airport is not the only entry point to the country. Investigations are continuing.

BANDLEADERS outraged at results of competitions judged by the National Carnival Commission (NCC), staged a protest outside the NCC’s office at the Queen’s Park Savannah, Port-of-Spain, yesterday.

The bandleaders claimed the NCC changed the original results of the competitions. They also alleged that the NCC merged competitions which were judged separately in previous years into one single competition. Rosalind Gabriel, bandleader of “Land of the Humming Bird,” told Newsday she originally placed first in the mini-band category of the George Bailey Award, but was told by the NCC that “an arithmetical error” had been made in the tabulation of the results. She was told she had in fact placed third. Gabriel said the NCC offered to give her the first place prize but that she would receive the third place trophy which she said did not make any sense. She claimed the NCC took three days to tabulate the results and then changed the results ten days later.

Gabriel also complained that while she placed in all the categories, she was left out of the judging for the Harold Saldenha competition. Bandleader Albert Bailey said the NCC was also unfair in grouping together the King and Queen of the Bands categories with those of the individual male and female categories. “For the past couple of years, there has been separate judging for the individual male and female and the King and Queen of the Bands categories,” he said. Bailey said individual contestants usually paid $4,000 or $5,000 for their costumes, while King and Queen contestants paid more than $20,000. He added that individual contestants could not be expected to compete with the costumes from bigger bands, who in the past had competed in the King and Queen Parade.

HALF an hour after surrendering to police in connection with the attempted murder of a policeman yesterday, a retired soldier was denied bail by a Justice of the Peace in the Princes Town Magistrate’s Court and remanded in custody until Monday.

Retired Lance Corporal Paul Pallackdharry-singh, 46, accompanied by his attorney, Chaiteram Sinanan, walked into the Princes Town Police Station around 8.30 am, after learning that a warrant had been issued for his arrest. On arriving at the station Pallackdharrysingh, who lives at Naparima/Mayaro Road, Tableland, was charged by Sgt Rajkumar for the attempted murder of PC Larry Legendre, 21,who is attached to the Couva Police Station. Pallackdharrysingh subsequently appeared before JP Errol Seepersad, since no magistrates were in court yesterday.

The prosecution objected to bail on the grounds that the soldier had not been traced for previous convictions or pending criminal matters. The prosecution also noted that the victim was still warded at the San Fernando General Hospital. However, in applying for bail on behalf of his client, Sinanan said Pallackdharrysingh took early retirement in January and could be called by the army to resume duties within the next three years. As such, Sinanan said, his client would therefore not fall under the category of persons disqualified for bail under the Bail Act. The attorney added that he had information that the policeman had been discharged from hospital. However, JP Seepersad expressed concern about whether the victim was still hospitalised and upheld the prosecution’s objection. Legendre, of  George Village, Tableland, was stabbed in his face, neck and both arms with an eight-inch cocoa knife outside a Tableland bar.

VENEZUELAN officials in Caracas are now closely examining Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s post-Cabinet statements Thursday in which he blames Venezuela for Trinidad and Tobago’s escalating crime situation. After the analysis is completed, the Venezuelans are expected to issue a response. That response is expected next week.

Manning at Thursday’s post-Cabinet press conference told reporters that there was “reason to believe” that there was a link between the increase in the number of guns here and the political disturbances in Venezuela. Manning suggested that because of Venezuela’s internal conflict, authorities there were not as vigilant with security on its borders, which allowed the Columbian drug lords to take advantage of the lapse, enabling them to bring guns to Trinidad.

A source at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Caracas yesterday said clippings of Manning’s statement were yesterday dispatched to them by officials at the local embassy here in Port-of-Spain. The source noted that the clippings would be thoroughly perused before a statement is prepared and issued here in Trinidad by the embassy. That response is expected to be very diplomatic.

The source staunchly denied that Venezuela’s internal conflicts, which began in November last year, in any way resulted in a lapse in general security in the South American country. As a matter of fact, the source insisted that security was increased because authorities recognised that persons could have taken advantage of the country’s turmoil. Efforts to reach Venezuelan Ambassador to TT, Hector Azocar proved futile.

Attorney General Glenda Morean appealed to the Opposi-tion UNC to put aside its political differences and to support the Government’s Kidnapping Bill 2003 currently before Parliament.

Morean’s call came at a dinner/seminar on the Bill on Thursday at Home Construction Limited Organisational Centre, Tacarigua, hosted jointly by three business associations. The event was introduced by the three female business heads — Gail Merhair of the San Juan Business Association, Kiran Maharaj of the Greater Tunapuna Chamber of Industry and Commerce and Indra Sinanan Ojar-Maharaj of the Sangre Grande Chamber of Commerce. Morean invited co-panelist Pointe-a-Pierre MP Gillian Lucky to support the Bill, saying that despite Lucky’s earlier stated misgivings about the Bill, it was still before the Senate where it could be amended before being returned to the House of Representatives. Saying the Bill specifically addressing the current problem of kidnapping for ransom, Morean appealed: “We need dialogue without the political rhetoric. When you have a serious problem confronting you, you have to get together to find the solution…There is still time for all involved.”

Earlier Lucky said she was concerned the Bill placed on a prosecutor the double burden of proving both the initial abduction offence of kidnapping and then the ongoing and continuing offence of false imprisonment, that a mandatory 25-year minimum penalty would prevent perpetrators from pleading guilty, and that the Bill did not take account of lesser abduction offences such as a father taking his own child or a young man eloping with a young woman. In reply Morean said: “If this Bill has flaws, what is Parliament for? To debate the provisions and make suggestions. The correct thing for the Opposition to do is propose amendments.” Morean explained that this Bill only intended to deal with kidnapping for ransom, the range of other abduction offences being covered by the existing common-law on each of kidnapping and of false imprisonment. Morean said: “This Kidnap-ping Bill doesn’t replace the common law offences.”

A 15-year-old schoolgirl, the key witness, testified for the prosecution yesterday in the trial of a Laventille man who is on trial for shooting his uncle to death. She gave evidence before Madame Justice Paula Mae Weekes in the Port-of-Spain Second Criminal Court.

Kevon Nurse, 25, is charged with the murder of Lester Ash, a steelpan tuner and tailor on Christmas Day 2000. Ash was fatally shot at his apartment in Building 13, Leon Street, Success Village, Laventille. Nurse also lived in the same building complex as Ash. Aneka Shockness gave evidence under the directions of State prosecutor Wayne Rajbansee. Shockness who at the time of the murder resided at Building 14, testified that at 1.45 pm on the day of the incident she was standing in front of her building with two of her friends. She said she saw Kevon Nurse standing a distance away placing a green plaid mask on his face. Shockness said she knew Nurse “practically all my life” and he had a parlour which she used to frequent. Nurse, she said, was wearing a multi-coloured T-shirt and a long dark blue jeans pants. She said after placing the mask on his face, Nurse then proceeded to walk in her direction. She added that there was nothing blocking her view.

Shockness said she saw a silver object in Nurse’s hand as he walked past her into the back door of Ash’s apartment. She said a few seconds later she heard five to six explosions that sounded like gunshots. She then went inside her apartment, spoke to her mother for a few minutes, and came back outside. She said a minute later she saw someone wearing the same clothes and mask as Nurse left Ash’s apartment. She said the person was carrying a silver object resembling a gun. The person walked in an easterly direction, looked at her, looked upstairs, and continued walking. She said she did not see Nurse later that day. Shockness’ evidence followed that of Sgt Garfield Moore, of the Port-of-Spain Headquarters. Moore testified that he arrested Nurse at Milford Court, Tobago, following information he received from officers at the Morvant Police Station. He said that initially Nurse told him that he was Kirk Ryan of Upper Seventh Street, Malick, Barataria. He said after searching Nurse’s bag he found documents with the name of Kevon Nurse upon which Nurse admitted that was his real name. Moore said he cautioned Nurse and told him that he was wanted in connection with the death of Ash. He said Nurse told him that at 5.30 am on Christmas Day, he and Ash had a fight, upon which Ash hit him on the shoulder with a piece of wood. Nurse said he stumbled on the rail and hit his face. He said Ash then hit him in his face and burst his mouth.

Nurse told Moore that he went to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital but left because it was too crowded. He then went to the hospital at Mt Hope but left when he was told he had to pay for treatment. He said he finally received medical attention at the Arima General Hospital. He said that he learnt of his uncle’s death while watching the news that same night. Nurse said he did not want to give a statement. Moore then said that he left Tobago with Nurse at 11 pm on January 15. He said when he arrived at the Port-of-Spain Wharf the next day, he took Nurse to the Port-of-Spain CID and left him with Sgt David Abraham. Under cross-examination by defence counsel Mario Merritt, Moore said he did not send Nurse’s clothes to be tested for gun powder residue as he was not the investigating officer. Justice Weekes adjourned the matter to Monday when Shockness will continue to give evidence.

TWO men who claim to be members of the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen, one of whom is a teacher, were denied bail yesterday when they appeared before a Justice of the Peace in the Princes Town Magistrates’ Court charged with kidnapping a 43-year-old straightener. 

The 31-year-old teacher, of Mon Plasir Avenue, Cunupia, and his 28-year-old co-accused, of Farouk Lane, El Socorro, appeared before JP Errol Seepersad, since there were no magistrates in court yesterday. The charge stemmed from an alleged incident on Thursday when Premnath Sookoo, a straightener/painter, of Barrackpore, was abducted from his home by two men dressed in Muslim garb. After the charge was read out by Seepersad, the two accused were remanded in custody until Monday when they are expected to appear before a magistrate.

FORMER PNM Education Minister Carlton Gomes died peacefully last Tuesday morning at his Savannah Drive, Tacarigua home.

Gomes’s wife Ursula Gomes told Newsday her husband died peacefully and had asked for her at the time of his death, around 8.40 am. At the time she was in San Fernando where she works. Gomes was being looked after by a caregiver. She said Gomes had been ailing for the last three months from colon cancer. He was 75 years. He will be buried today at the La Brea public cemetery after a 10 am church service at the Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Harris Promenade, San Fernando. Gomes, a member of the PNM, was a former teacher before entering politics. He was a former Member of Parliament for San Juan West and served in several capacities under the late Dr Eric Williams.

Among the posts he held were Minister of Education from 1970 to 1976, a Senator and Parliamentary Secretary to Dr Williams with specific responsibility for public relations and general information from 1969-1970. In that capacity he also accompanied Dr Williams on several business trips abroad. He was also a former High Commissioner to Jamaica in the 1980s. He leaves to mourn his four children: Kenneth, Keith, Kasey and Kathy-Ann, grandchildren Raquel, Rebecca and Keith, as well as one brother and five sisters. Expressing condolences on behalf of the Government in Parliament yesterday, Prime Minister Patrick Manning said Gomes had been a mentor to him when he entered politics in 1971 and was someone to whom he could always turn to for advice. Manning added that the country’s political life had been enriched by Gomes’ contribution both within the ranks of the PNM and at the level of government.

Opposition Chief Whip Ganga Singh expressed condolences on Gomes’ passing on behalf of the UNC but cheekily noted that in Gomes’ later years, he had become aligned to the now defunct Organisation for National Reconstruction (ONR). Singh said Gomes realised that the PNM had strayed from the course charted by its founder Dr Eric Williams and had “seen the wisdom of abandoing the PNM”. House Speaker Barry Sinanan then called for the Lower House to observe a minute’s silence in Gomes’ memory.

THE search for a homeless man who disappeared after diving into the sea in Mayaro to elude police on Wednesday ended when his body washed ashore Thursday night. Accord-ing to reports, at around 10.20 pm Mayaro police received a telephone tip-off that a body was seen on the beach front. They later confirmed that the body was that of Brian “Gorilla” Williams. The body was found near to where Williams jumped into the sea on Wednesday to escape from policemen.

District Medical Officer Dr Amin arrived an hour after the body was discovered and ordered it removed to the Port-of-Spain Mortuary. On Wednesday, police officers went to Mayaro to investigate reports of a series of break-ins at beachfront properties. On reaching Ocean Sands beach, the officers spotted Williams sitting on the sand.  On seeing the approaching officers, Williams ran and dived into the sea, swimming out into deep water to avoid them. The police did not go into the water, but alerted nearby lifeguards. Williams soon disappeared under the water.