RELATIVES of Shedrah Beckles and Kevin Thomas, the two men who were shot and killed during a shootout with police at Samaroo Village, Arima, around 11.30 am on Tuesday, insisted yesterday that the two victims were not bandits nor killers.
Ann Beckles, Shedrah’s mother, said the last time she saw her son was on Saturday. She described Shedrah, 29, as a nice person and added that she was still in a state of shock over the killing. An autopsy carried out yesterday on the body of Kevin Thomas, 23, revealed that death was due to shock and haemorrhage consistent with gunshot wounds.
Thomas was shot once in the chest and in the right leg. The autopsy on the body of Beckles will be carried out today. At Arima yesterday, Ann Beckles, mother of the dead man, claimed that her son did not deserve to die the way he did. She added that based on the information she had received thus far, her son was not in possession of any gun, and he did not shoot at the police. But police investigators insisted yesterday that a shootout took place and a .22 pistol, ammunition, spent ammunition and marijuana were recovered from the house. A 20-year-old woman was also arrested. Newsday learned that Supt Farrell of Central Division has been detailed to carry out an independent investigation into the shooting deaths. Newsday also learned that the two men were suspects in the attempted murder of a police corporal last week.
A ST JAMES man charged with possession of cocaine told Port-of-Spain Magistrate Melvin Daniel he “just wanted to experience the drug.”
Peter Mc Millan, 46, of Delhi Street, St James, was walking near his home on Thursday when he was spotted by PC Charles of the St James Task Force. He reportedly began acting suspicious. When he was searched, 1.4 grammes of cocaine and apparatus used for smoking cocaine were found in his possession. After reviewing McMillan’s criminal record, Daniel said: “I see that you’ve been charged with house breaking and praedial larceny, sir, you are branching out.” Mc Millan replied: “ I had it to smoke, but it was just for the experience.”“You will experience jail,” the magistrate said as he sentenced him to 12 months in prison with hard labour.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Consumer Affairs Department of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) and the Ministry of Legal Affairs’ Consumer Affairs Division is to be revisited.
According to Minister of Legal Affairs Camille Robinson-Regis, the Consumer Policy for Trinidad and Tobago will also be revised “with a more significant input from Tobago.” The whole issue of unfavourable insurance company practices will also be reviewed. Robinson-Regis said these concerns were addressed at a recent meeting with THA Secretary for Consumer Affairs, Neil Wilson. She said discussions were also held with senior officials of the Tobago Regional Health Authority (TRHA) with respect to the relocation of the District Registrar’s office to the Scarborough Hospital. This, she noted, is expected to help decrease the incidence of unregistered births as well as the late registration of births. The minister made the disclosures in Tobago yesterday when she officially launched the Consumer Education in Primary Schools’ pilot projects.
WASA is appealing to consumers to conserve water as much as possible and has warned that the ban on hoses and sprinklers will continue until further notice. WASA said the negative impact of the abnormally dry period on the country’s water resources is expected to continue into the rainy season although there have been predictions of normal to above normal rainfall this month.
Water production has dropped by 39 million gallons a day at the country’s major reservoirs and river sources. Storage reserves stand at approximately 4.2 billion gallons as WASA continues to manage distribution to ensure availability of supplies to customers until the situation improves. Rainfall has been the lowest on record at stations monitored by the Meteorological Service in areas where WASA’s main water sources are located: Piarco, Arena, Navet and Hillsborough in Tobago. From December 2002 to May 2003, rainfall at the major reservoirs ranged from a low of 41 percent of normal at Hillsborough to a best of 49 percent of normal at Arena, the largest reservoir.
HOMICIDE police are awaiting the results of a toxicologist’s report to determine whether foul play was involved in the death of a 50-year-old Chaguanas construction worker
Uriah Henry Guy, a resident of Enterprise Post Man Drive, Enterprise, Chaguanas, died at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) in Mount Hope on May 27 — two days after he was admitted after complaining of serious chest pains. Investigators told Newsday that an autopsy carried out at the EWMSC’s mortuary the day after Guy died revealed he died of complications due to septicaemia in the lungs. However, when investigators received certain information, they began to suspect foul play was involved in Guy’s death and as such, investigators petitioned a coroner and were subsequently granted a court order, authorising them to seize the body.
Last Sunday, police went to the mortuary of the EWMSC and seized the body, which was taken to the Forensic Sciences Centre, Federation Park, St James. Earlier this week, tissue and fluid samples were taken from Guy’s body at the Forensic Sciences Centre mortuary and sent to the nearby Toxicology Lab for further testing. Up to late yesterday, investigators had not received the results of these tests. Guy, who was originally from Union Hall, Rio Claro, was married and had children. Homicide Bureau investigators including Insp Fitzgerald George, Sgt Clyde Phillip and Cpl Wahid Hamid are continuing inquiries.
KIDNAPPED CENTRAL businessman Outhar Maraj was released on Tuesday night after an undisclosed sum of money was paid to his abductors.
Maraj, 38, a car rental businessman, of Grand Central Park, was bundled into a van after his car was forced off the road at Jerningham Junction, Chaguanas, on Sunday night. He was reportedly on his way home when the incident occurred. Hours later kidnappers contacted his relatives demanding a $2 million ransom for his safe return. Police sources told Newsday that without the knowledge of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad (AKS), who were investigating the kidnapping, relatives arranged with the kidnappers to have the ransom paid. Sources confirmed that Maraj was released after his abductors collected money, but declined to state the exact amount of money paid.
Maraj was dropped off at Chandernagore in Chase Village, Chaguanas around 7.15 pm on Tuesday and managed to make his way home. Relatives then contacted the Chaguanas CID and Anti-Kidnapping Squad. Maraj, who was kept blindfolded throughout his ordeal, was interviewed by investigators at his home. Police sources said Maraj admitted to them that money was paid, but declined to reveal the amount. When Newsday visited Maraj’s home yesterday, relatives claimed he was not at home. They also said Maraj did not want to speak to the media about his ordeal. Meanwhile, up to late yesterday relatives of kidnap victim Ryan Jaipaul, 27, of St Charles Road, Princes Town, had not been contacted by his captors. Jaipaul was also abducted on Sunday night, while standing in front his sister’s home. Anti-Kidnapping Squad officers are continuing investigations.
A TEENAGER on three counts of motor manslaughter has been granted $100,000 bail.
The charges arose out of a fatal vehicular accident on February 9 along the North Coast Road. It is alleged that a car driven by Ria Oliverie, 19, spun out of control after she attempted to overtake four vehicles. The car crashed into a tree and fell 90 feet over a precipice.
Three occupants of the car, Marlon Ifill, 19, Jackie Pamponette, 19, and Kelan Mc Auley, died instantly. Oliverie, who was represented by Asaf Hosein, appeared before Magistrate Lianne Lee Kim. The matter was adjourned to June 16.
SENIOR officers of the Anti-Corruption Squad said yesterday they have not been reporting their findings in the Water Farm Limited investigations to Attorney General Glenda Morean.
Officers claimed the only persons they report to are Police Commissioner Hilton Guy and Director of Public Prosecutions Geoffrey Henderson. They added, however, that Canadian Forensic Accountant Bob Lindquist was hired by the AG to carry out several investigations, and if the AG is being briefed by Lindquist in his investigations, that is not a matter for the police to be questioned about. On Tuesday, Opposition Chief Whip Ganga Singh called for the immediate resignation of the Attorney General. He accused her of attempting to interfere in the investigation into allegations of corruption at WASA relating to the $51 million out of court settlement to Water Farm Limited. The AG was quoted last week as claiming that Singh had presented no new evidence to Lindquist in the Water Farm Limited Investigation. She was also quoted as saying that Singh presented no documents to support his claim. Singh is claiming that the AG overstepped the boundaries of her constitutional mandate, and is usurping and subverting the investigative role of the police and the independence of the DPP.
Former AG Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj said yesterday that when he was AG and Lindquist was hired to assist the police in their investigations, he never had any day to day contact with investigators. “Any AG under our system ought to detach the office from the day to day investigations, and even if Lindquist reports to the AG it could be in the form of written or oral reports, but it should be in the presence of the Commissioner of Police, or the investigators.” He said court decisions in the Commonwealth have been declared null and void where there was political interference in the investigations which the court felt amounted to an abuse of process. “I do not know the facts of the present matter, and I am speaking purely from a general point of view,” said the former AG.
Attorney General Glenda Morean yesterday denied charges made by UNC MP Ganga Singh that she was interfering in the Linquist investigation into WASA, and in doing so she was compromising the independence of the inquiry.
Morean was speaking at a news conference following a meeting with the National Parent Teachers Association (NPTA) at her Cabildo Chambers office. Morean said she was merely correcting an inaccuracy which was put in the public domain by Singh, when he informed the population (via the media) that he had passed on certain documents to Lindquist. She said based on information she had, Singh gave no documents. “So he is misleading the population,” she said. Asked whether she received daily reports on the investigations, Morean said she has received information, though not on a daily basis. Noting that it was the government which requisitioned a study, she said she was entitled as Attorney General to get reports. “I am not commenting on the merits or demerits, or going into the integity of the investigation, but I saw something reported which was incorrect and I corrected that.” On Singh’s call for her resignation because she was interfering with the investigation, the AG said: “Total politics. And this is the silly season (local government elections).”
She said her only comment on the Lindquist probe related to the veracity of a statement made to the media by Singh. “What he can say is whether what I said was correct or incorrect,” she said. About her statements on Singh that he had revealed nothing new to Lindquist, Morean said the statement which was correct, was based on a report she was given. Asked about the propriety of making statements about an issue under investigations, Morean said she was not discussing the merits of the case. “I am correcting misinformation that is being given to the public. I am not dealing with the investigation as such, but I am dealing with the misinformation that is being thrown out to the public by Mr Singh,” she said. She added that she did not think that public confidence in the investigation could be jeopardised by anything she said. Asked whether she should have someone independent dealing with the investigators, Morean said she was not determining whether anyone was guilty of any wrongful act or not. “So that I am not part of the investigation as such…but I am the Attorney General. I have to protect the public interest, and if the public is being fed misinformation I am entitled to correct that,” she said.
She added that she didn’t want to go into the matter any further because she would not want to prejudice any prosecution (if a prosecution becomes necessary). The Attorney General also said she would prefer not to “get into” the “shoot-to-kill” advice given to the police by Christopher Holder of the Police Second Division. She said there was a question of the “context” in which things are said. Pressed further, the Attorney General said a policeman had to make a judgement depending on the circumstances with which he is confronted. “And that is police work,” she said, declining to explain herself any further. The Attorney General said she was now working on anti-terrorism legislation and she was hoping to have it out for public comment by next week. On the question of kidnapping and fears that Mark Prescott may have been taken out of the country, Morean said this country has laws in place aimed at preventing persons from illegally taking children out of the country. But, she noted, in any system that is devised, persons find ways of contravening it. “You will always find someone who is ingenious enough to find a way — whether it would be successful or not — to get around the system,” she said. PRO of the NPTA, Maureen Taylor-Ryan said the country also needed to deal with the crime wave in the East-West Corridor especially in Laventille. “If we don’t attend to it now it would spread right through the country,” she said.
MINISTERS of the former United National Congress (UNC) government were bitterly divided over the management of the Piarco International Airport Project and they were trying to destroy one another in order to further their political ambitions.
This was revealed by former Housing Minister John Humphrey as the Commission of Inquiry into the Project continued at the Caribbean Court of Justice yesterday. Asked by Commissioner Kenneth Sirju why the project’s cost increased from US$65 million to US$105 million, Humphrey said it all had to do with politics. “You find that (politics) does not conform to the law. There are very strange happenings in the world of politics. Politics is about power, not about people; it’s about power. Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. There is no question. Our system is a power-centric system where absolute power is vested in the Prime Minister,” he explained. Questioned by Commission Chairman retired Chief Justice Clinton Bernard whether then Airports Authority (AA) chairman Tyrone Gopee was right to seek a legal opinion regarding the approval of certain contracts the AA entered into before turning over the project to NIPDEC, even though former Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj had already given Cabinet a legal opinion on that issue, Humphrey replied: “I don’t have an opinion to venture what is proper. With the politics, as I recall the politics, with certain people’s ambitions burning in a certain way and with the whole tendency to promote oneself in politics by destroying one’s colleague. All those circumstances considered, I can’t condemn anyone for what was done quite frankly.”
Humphrey said although he was a Cabinet minister, the actions of his colleagues regarding the project left him “very puzzled”. The former minister said the contract for CPs One and Two were supposed to cost US$12.5 million but it was eventually awarded for US$5 million while the contract for CP6a and 6b were awarded for US$33.1 million instead of the original US$38.2 million. “I came to my own conclusions and it would be out of order for me to share those with the Commission. Those are political conclusions,” he added. Bernard advised him that such conclusions would not be entertained by the Commission. Sirju told Humphrey previous studies showed the airport could not support expenditure over US$65 million, it would cost taxpayers US$250 million annually to repay the current expenditure on the project and the AA’s annual revenues could not fill breach the gap. Humphrey said Government planned to establish “one mega-project” at Piarco to manufacture aircraft brakes to gain additional revenues and this “gigantic industry” would have employed 30,000 persons. The former minister explained that Cabinet alone did not decide to boost the project’s expenditure from US$65 million to US$105 million.
“I believe the decision that the Cabinet took to go ahead and build the airport for US$105 million was a good decision,” Humphrey said. The former minister added that he could not be blamed for any cost overruns on the project and he did the best he could. Bernard complimented Humphrey on his good behaviour at yesterday’s sitting. Also testifying was Ministry of Works and Transport client representative Peter Cateau who denied that Birk Hillman Consultants (BHC) were paid a sum of US$ 400,000 without having done any work. Cateau claimed both BHC and NIPDEC made a lot of payments on account and Ishwar Galbaransingh’s Northern Construction Limited was one contractor on the project who lacked the necessary technical experience. Cateau also revealed that he only took three days’ vacation during his four years and nine months as client representative, and none of the government ministers he interacted with felt his performance was unsatisfactory. The hearing continues today.
