He noted bpTT’s statement on Angelin’s fabrication, statements made during Thursday’s post-Cabinet news conference and comments by La Brea MP Nicole Olivierre on this issue. Asked if the OWTU or the labour movement feels responsible for bpTT’s pull-out, Roget replied, “Absolutely not!”

Declaring that no one should use the current economic situation to disadvantage workers, Roget added, “Take your platform and go! We are not prepared to have any type of construction in an environment that is unsafe, unhealthy and void of good industrial relations practice.”

He said BP, as a multinational, cannot take a hands off approach and allow local contractors to, “Do as they please.” He said the union is prepared to send that message internationally. Adding that while JTUM welcomes any investment into TT, “We support it on the basis that they are committing to adhering to every single one of our laws.”

Predicting there will be more protests and yesterday’s action was a signal that the labour movement is mobilising, Roget declared, “We are not going to relent because BP pulled out. There will be more BPs pulling out, over and over again because we are not prepared to relent, unless and until they get the message.”

After he claimed that BP is holding the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) to ransom, Roget warned Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley that his administration is walking down, “A Kamla (Persad-Bissessar) road.” He threatened, “If he did not learn from the mistakes that she committed, the same consequences would apply.”

Hinting the labour movement would make, “A critical announcement”, either on May Day or Labour Day, Roget said, “We are not prepared to eat PNM and bread…we will defend the bread of all of the workers in this country.” Communications Workers Union (CWU) President Joseph Remy and TT Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA) President Lynsley Doodhai, supported Roget’s position as they articulated the concerns of their respective unions on other matters.

Doodhai claimed Government has refused to act on the concerns of teachers at the St Madeleine School. He said this issue has spanned, “two different governments, two different ministers and we have no end in sight.” He alleged certain Education Ministry officials were culpable for that situation. Remy reiterated that Government continues to disrespect the CWU with respect to a decision to close down the Tourism Development Company.

Reiterating that the Galicia will continue its sailings to and from Tobago over the Easter weekend, Sinanan said the short term period of two months between the time the Galicia ceases operations and closure of a tender to acquire a replacement vessel, is the period which must be immediately addressed ,

In this regard, he explained the ability of Inter-Continental to source a vessel for use within this period as one of many options on the table at this time. Sinanan disclosed that on Thursday, he toured the two naval vessels which could be used to transport cargo on the sea bridge ,

He said the vessels came down to the Port-of-Spain port for inspection ,

The minister said nobody is being “blacklisted” from participating in the tender and he hopes Inter-Continental would participate. Sinanan said while he understood concerns of the Tobago Chamber of Commerce about options to replace the Galicia, this was not a simple matter ,

The minister explained that acquiring a vessel to operate on the sea bridge is different from acquiring a new motor vehicle from a automobile dealership because the requirements are far different. Reiterating this was a situation which should never have happened in the first place, Sinanan explained that “a combination” of vessels may have to be used in the short term, until a proper replacement is acquired ,

— Reporting by CLINT CHAN TACK

Hovell, who did not answer several calls to his cellular phone made by his worried wife Christiana and other relatives and friends over the past seven days, answered yesterday when Newsday called at 2 pm. Hovell made it clear he was not missing and had simply taken time off for a week in Trinidad, “to breeze out” and chose not to tell anyone he was travelling to Trinidad.

Hovell said he prefers not to discuss why he wanted to spend a week in Trinidad but added it was his decision not to tell anyone, including his family, about his whereabouts. He also flatly denied leaving home for Trinidad to meet a woman, whom he had met on Facebook.

“There is simply no truth to that. All I did was travel to Trinidad without telling anyone. I had planned this but it had nothing to do with any disagreement between me and my wife. I just needed to breeze out without telling anyone…and I did just that,” Hovell told Newsday.

He added that when he returns to Tobago, he will go to the Crown Point Police Station to explain to officers his disappearance and then return to his marital home to reunite with wife Christiana and their two children, ages six and nine. Yesterday, Christiana told Newsday she tried calling her husband’s phone repeatedly, but was not successful.

Newsday also contacted Assistant Commissioner of Police (Tobago) Garfield Moore who said that police investigating the Missing Person report filed, received information that Hovell travelled to Trinidad on a Caribbean Airlines (CAL) flight two Fridays ago. He said that police resources were deployed to locate Hovell.

When Newsday contacted ACP Moore later yesterday and told him that Hovell was in Trinidad and not in any danger, Moore said he was relieved to know the man was safe, but added he would be interviewed by Tobago police. ACP Moore wondered why Hovell did not inform a relative or even the police that he was not missing.

Hovell left Tobago on March 31. He was last seen by his wife leaving a pharmacy in Scarborough.

Hovell told Christiana then, that she would not see him that weekend because he had some things to do in a house he was building in Bethel. On Wednesday, Christiana was contacted by Hovell’s mother who said he was missing.

His co-workers from the Tobago Regional Health Authority attempted to locate him and posted his photo on social media seeking the public’s assistance to locate him. Even Tourism Minister and Tobago West MP Shamfa Cudjoe — a close friend of Hovell since primary school days — publicly appealed for help to locate him.

Asked by Fitzgerald Hinds, Chairman of the Joint Select Committee on National Security inquiring into the staffing deficiencies of the DPP’s Office yesterday when the requests for confirmation were received, Chief Personnel Officer Beresford Riley said, “I do not have that information.” Asked if they requests were made over two years ago, he said, he could not dispute that, and that all the requests for classification were not made at one time.

It would not surprise him “totally” if the requests had been made two years ago, Riley said, “because we are understaffed just as many others in the public service.” While the Personnel Department was trying to ensure that it carries out its functions, he said, “We do not have the capacity to treat with all at this time.” Hinds remarked, “You too need support. Interesting but not strange. You are saying that you are unable to help because you have similar problems.” Expressing disappointment at the response from the CPO, Hinds suggested that a close examination of the office of the CPO was needed.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs Ingrid Seerattan said the issue of classification of the officers was sent to the Personnel Department in 2014 following the decision to retain a number of contract staff on the establishment.

Their designation were to be reclassified from legal officers to legal counsel.

She said there was need for a formal settlement of the terms and conditions of work from the Office of the CPO for the contract staff who would have been placed on the establishment.

In the change in the system of employment, she said that some staff would have left the work by the time the terms and conditions were finalised and some staff would have been underpaid or overpaid.

When the terms and conditions come from the CPO, she said, “you have issues.” The classification was based on the recommendation of the DPP, Seerattan said, to move away from employing contract staff to having them placed on the regular establishment.

“We have been working to have those positions filled.

Some were not filled because of lack of spatial accommodation,” she said.

Based on the request of the Office of the DPP, Seerattan said that priority was given to filling senior appointments because of the need, though a number of junior appointments were also made.

In one case, on Thursday night gunmen shot and killed a 22-year-old Guyanese national.

Hours later, not too far from where the Guyanese man was killed, another man was gunned down. Also on Thursday night, a man who was recently released from prison, was gunned down in St Augustine.

MURDER 1 Police said that Raphael Collins, 22, was shot while having his hair plaited by a female companion.

According to reports, Collins was in the gallery of a house at Lot 8 in Old St Joseph Road, at about 9 pm on Thursday, when a car pulled up. A man alighted from the car and shot Collins as the woman screamed for help.

The gunman got back into the car which sped off. The woman was unharmed.

Relatives yesterday said they believe Collins was “set up” as persons were not happy with his relationship with a 16-yearold girl. Collins’ parents, who are still in Guyana, have been told of his murder. It is not known whether they would come to Trinidad, or have the body flown to Guyana for final rites.

MURDER 2 Also at 9 pm on Thursday, a 41-year-old man was shot dead in St Augustine.

While relatives were reluctant to speak to reporters, Newsday was told the deceased was identified as Mukesh Pooran.

Residents of Freeman Street heard gunshots and on checking, found Pooran on the road, face up. He was shot in the head. Police said the victim was well-known to them for several drug related incidents. He was recently released from prison.

MURDER 3 Yesterday at 2.30 pm, 20-yearold Ayinde Williams of Patna Road, St Ann’s was killed in a drive-by shooting. Williams went to visit a friend at Lot 9, Old St Joseph Road, Laventille when a car pulled up and gunmen opened fire. Williams died on the spot. Newsday understands the man was visiting family members of his girlfriend, when he was killed. No arrests have been made in any of these three murders.

SHOT BODY IN SEA Finally, the body of a man who was discovered in the sea off the North Coast on Wednesday, has been identified as Shawndell Goldon, 22, who was reported missing on March 10. An autopsy revealed he died from multiple gunshot wounds.

“They really advantage the youth,” said Curtis Goldon, the victim’s father. “I cannot say what happened, because a child may not tell you what he is going to do. But to my knowledge he was not involved in anything, he was not owing anyone anything. He was not the kind of child that would be in a gang. I really cannot say what happened and I am looking for answers.” Goldon was last seen on March 10 and when relatives realised he did not return to his Fatima Trace, Paramin home they did not pay it any mind, thinking he was nighting over by friends.

When he did not return home the following day and could not be reached on the phone, his mother, Debra De Verteuil contacted the Maraval Police Station. The murder toll up to press time stood at 142.

On Monday at 4 pm, police reported, the schoolgirl boarded a car in St James, asking the driver to take her home.

However, while en route to her destination, the child accepted a sweetie from the driver and later fell unconscious in the car. When she revived, the child realised she was naked and lying on a bed inside a house.

The driver, who was also naked and on the bed, then sexually assaulted the child who later begged to be released.

The child was told to get dressed by the man who then took her to a parlour where he bought her some ice cream. He later dropped her off near her home.

The child reported to her mother what had happened and they both went to the police where a report was made. She was medically examined and the Child Protection Unit alerted.

The taxi driver was detained on Tuesday and five charges were laid against him yesterday. They include abduction, sexual touching, false imprisonment, paying for sexual services and having sex with a minor.

He was due to appear yesterday afternoon before a Port-of-Spain magistrate.

The award was made yesterday by the Equal Opportunities Tribunal (EOT) at the commission’s offices at Manic Street in Chaguanas.

Presiding over the complaint filed by Maharaj were chairman of the EOT Rajmanlal Joseph and lay assessors Leela Ramdeen and Harridath Maharaj.

In assessment of damages, the Immigration Division of the Ministry of National Security was ordered to pay Maharaj $231,303.80 in general and aggravated damages with interest, as well as $230,400 in special damages, also with interest.

Maharaj will also receive costs in the sum of $69,255.57.

The EOT had in 2015 gave judgment in Maharaj’s favour after the Immigration Division failed to file a defence to the complaint. Maharaj, in his original complaint, spoke of being told by an Immigration Division officer, upon his return to Trinidad on March 19, 2008, “Ent Sat Maharaj is your father? You ain’t need to work, yuh father carry the Government to court for the Trinity Cross and radio licence. Go let them fix it!” According to Maharaj’s complaint, when he returned to Trinidad from Canada his passport was stamped ‘employment not permitted’ although he is a TT national. He was forced to file a judicial review application in 2013 and the High Court judge ordered the Chief Immigration Officer to remove the stamp or modify it.

It was only then that the Chief Immigration Officer struck out the word, ‘not’, and wrote: “The bearer is a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago and is permitted to work.” Maharaj said he is a citizen of TT by virtue of descent. He said because of the restriction he was forced to decline employment as a journalist.

Maharaj calculated he would have earned $72,000 in year one and $158,400, for the second and third years of a three-year contract offered to him by the TT Mirror.

He said he was left embarrassed and humiliated. Maharaj said he suffered loss of income from his tattoo business Unscathed Tattoo Studio from March 2008 to September 2013, amounting to $3.2 million.

Retrial was ordered for Dirk Bruno and Sheldon Henry by Justices of Appeal Alice Yorke- Soo Hon, Rajendra Narine and Mark Mohammed who ruled in favour of an appeal filed by the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Justice Mohammed, who delivered the ruling, found the evidence in the case was not weak or tenuous and its strength would have depended on a jury’s assessment.

The two immediately rearrested after the ruling was delivered in the court.

Murder indictments in their name were returned to the High Court for the next cause list hearing.

In 2015, Justice Hayden St Clair-Douglas upheld no-case submissions which contested the identification statement taken from the state’s main witness.

After a six-week trial, in which ten witnesses gave evidence and six formal admissions were heard, Justice St Clair-Douglas said he had a duty to review the quality of the evidence presented and came to the “inescapable conclusion” it was poor. He directed the 12-member jury to return a not-guilty verdict.

Bruno and Henry, both of New Village, Point Fortin, were charged with the 2007 murder of Goodridge, 21, a student of the Servol Life Centre, La Romaine.

In his judgement, Justice Mohammed said, “there is no gainsaying that there were areas of weakness, but these could have been the subject of appropriately robust cautions given within the context of the overall Turnbull warning. We therefore conclude the judge erred in law in upholding the submission of no case to answer and in withdrawing the case from the jury.” According to the principles of the case of R vs Turnbull, a judge should direct a jury to examine closely the circumstances in which the identification by each witness came to be made and remind the jury of any specific weaknesses in the identification evidence.

At the appeal, the DPP was represented by prosecutor Mauricia Joseph while Larry Williams and Marissa Bubb appeared for Bruno and Henry.

Phillip “The Boss” Boodram, of Dow Village, California; Roger Mootoo, of Springvale Village, Claxton Bay; Ricky Singh, of Cedar Hill Road, Claxton Bay; Kervin Williams and Aaron “Arc Eye” Grappie, both of Pranz Gardens, Claxton Bay, were not sentenced yesterday, as probation officers’ reports and bio-social reports from the prison authorities, are not yet completed. Justice Norton Jack assured that every attempt will be made to have the reports expedited before he sentences the men. The matter will now be heard on April 28. The five were convicted on the lesser count of manslaughter following a trial which lasted two years in the Port-of-Spain High Court. They were found not guilty of murder, for which they were indicted.

It was the third trial for the five after previous trials in 2009 and 2012, resulted in hung juries after no unanimous verdict could be reached. The third trial began in September 2015 and ended in March.

In 2009, Vivian “Clarkie” Clarke, 36, Steve “Boops” McGilvery, 27, and Pernell Martin, 29, who were also on trial for Rampersad’s murder were sentenced to 30 years each for their role in kidnapping and killing her. Bobby Sankar was freed and Boodram and the rest were ordered to face a new trial.

Shannen needs a Haploidentical Bone Marrow Transplant which can only be done at the Bambino Gesu Paediatric Hospital in Rome. Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh has until 4 pm next Monday to respond to Luke’s application for funding from the Children’s Life Fund, Ramdeen said.

In an immediate response, Minister Deyalsingh said any child with medical issues would be a source of concern for his Ministry and government’s policy on the Children’s Life Fund is consistent with that of the previous government.

“We are deeply concerned about the child and all applications to the Life Fund will be dealt with urgency and fairness in accordance with the exiting legal frame work. As Minister of Health I do not make recommendations.

There is a separate entity that evaluates all information and make a recommendation.

I want to reiterate, all applications, every single one without exception are dealt with urgency,” Deyalsingh said.

Yesterday, Michelle Luke told Newsday she recently received a $50,000 donation from the Massy Foundation for which she is extremely grateful.

Ramdeen has written to Minister Deyalsingh informing him of the Monday deadline. The letter was copied to the Office of the Prime Minister and the Attorney General.

The family has mortgaged its home and held a variety of fund-raising ventures including barbecues, a calypso show and a boat cruise. Donations have also come from private citizens and the Rotary Club. Ramdeen said the Health Minister indicated in Parliament that there is $55 million in the Life Fund.

“I wrote the Minister and gave him until Monday at 4 pm to process the application and give a positive response to these parents because they have not sat and done nothing…

they have done everything, they have mortgaged their house, taken a personal loan, they have gone to everyone they can go to in order to save their child’s life,” Ramdeen said, adding the child’s life will be saved, whether voluntarily by the Minster of Health or by a Court Order.