They found Bennet lying in a pool of blood on the roadway. He had a gunshot wound to the chest. Relatives spoke briefly to reporters at the Forensic Science Centre in St James yesterday. They said that Bennet had been working in the registry of the paediatric department of the Eric Williams Medical Science Complex.

About one hour before Bennet was killed, Bascombe was attacked by gunmen along Balthazar Street in Tunapuna. He was shot twice. He was taken to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, where he was treated and is warded in a stable condition. The murder toll now stands at 97.

Speaking on Monday during debate in the Lower House on the Indictable Offences (Pre-Trial Procedure) Bill, 2017, Antoine said that even Chief Justice Ivor Archie, has expressed his opposition to keeping the PI system, which is a type of trial in which a magistrate listens to evidence and determines if a case should move to the full trial stage before a judge and jury in the High Courts.

Some PIs are over ten years old.

Antoine, reminded the Opposition that it was the UNC Government that contemplated the same objective in previous legislation, observing that they were unable to accomplish their intention because of Clause 34.

He said preliminary inquiries are not necessary in every matter and even CJ Archie lamented that preliminary inquiries are impeding the delivery of justice.

He said there are many young men in Remand Yard spending more time awaiting trial than the maximum sentence for the crime of which they are accused. He said this was an absurd situation and it makes more sense for someone who is innocent to plead guilty at the preliminary inquiry stage and be sentenced rather than to defend himself and spend years awaiting trial in the Remand Yard. Intoning that “Justice delayed is justice denied”, he said the Attorney General is trying to ensure that citizens get a speedy trial.

He challenged the Opposition, saying he didn’t understand why they were opposing the legislation because they had brought a bill to the House with a similar intent but were now raising all kinds of “red herrings.” MP for Caroni East Dr Tim Gopeesingh gave the background to the Administration of Justice (Indictable Offences) Bill which was brought by the then UNC government and said it was the same situation which the then government had tried to resolve. He said that bill would have removed more than 150,000 cases from the Magistrate’s Courts but whereas the UNC legislation proposed that a case be dismissed if the matter was not heard after ten years, the current PNM bill was proposing that if the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had not preferred an indictment against an accused person within twelve months of charges being laid he would be able to apply to a judge to have his case discharged.

Dr Gopeesingh said this meant that the accused person could be freed after one year of charges being laid. He speculated that very few of the persons at Remand Yard have had an indictment laid against them by the DPP after one year, meaning that under the current legislation all of the people at Remand Yard could go free. He said the bill could not be supported as it was framed.

In any case he said the detection rate was so low that the legislation would not make any difference since no one was being held by the Police.

Also during the sitting, Caroni Central Dr Bhoe Tewarie said this country should prepare for mass deportations of citizens from the United States.

Dr Tewarie said US President Donald Trump is unpredictable and is using his executive power to test all of that country’s institutions. He said even healthy democracies such as the US run the risk of ending up with a dictatorship and this should be a lesson to this country that it must jealously guard its democracy.

Also contributing to debate, MP for D’Abadie/ O’Meara Ancil.

“Further the Chairman of the HR committee was Glenn Wilson, not Christine Sahadeo,” Sahadeo added. “And a tender to contract a recruiting firm was made by the HR sub-committee of the Board. This was approved and signed by six of the seven Board members. Sahadeo confirmed her resignation as Chairman of the Port Authority Board, but indicated this was done on Wednesday last, “hence the statement that, “Cabinet fires entire Port Board” is inaccurate.” Newsday has since been advised that the other six members of the board formally tendered their resignation on Sunday. The board members – Michael Patterson, Radha Permanand, Glenn Wilson, Ken Wright, Melissa Alexis James, a Ferdinand Ferreira – sent a joint letter to the Minister of Works and Transport dated March 5, advising of their resignation “with immediate effect” saying it has been an honour and privilege to serve their country. The Board was installed in November 2015. (See Page 15A)

Responding to a question in the Senate, Moses said Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley issued an official response on Jan 30 on the matter of the “unfounded and inaccurate statements” by Nance. He explained that any further statement by him on this issue is, “not necessary or indeed appropriate.” In that statement, the Prime Minister declared, ““Mr Nance’s broad and simplistic statement is not supported by fact and ignores the robust and substantial national security cooperative partnership between TT and the United States.” Rowley further stated, “TT’s unshakeable commitment to combatting terrorism and religious extremism in all its forms, cannot be called into question.”

Bakr was served a witness summons at his home at Queen’s Park West on September 9, 2013, to appear at the enquiry but failed to do so. The private complaint was brought against Bakr by the secretary to the Commission of Enquiry for his failure to heed a summons served on him to appear before the enquiry in September, 2013.

Bakr has pleaded not-guilty to the complaint. Bakr failed to appear before the commission on two occasions — August 29, 2012, and also September 23, 2013. On the first occasion, the commission referred the matter to the DPP who took the position that he will not lay charges against Bakr for failing to answer a summons of the commission to appear before it.

Instead, the DPP told the commission it has the legal power to direct the Commissioner of Police to “prosecute the proceedings” for breach of Section 16.

When he first failed to appear in 2012, Bakr cited his then ongoing case against him in the High Court, and last year said he would appear only if he was paid to give evidence.

The private summons now before the Chief Magistrate was issued in accordance with Sections 12 and 16 of the Commissions of Inquiry Act.

Representing the commission yesterday was attorney Larry Lalla while Criston J Williams appeared for Bakr.

Hayden Waldron, who worked with the division, filed a judicial review claim against Dianne Baker Henry, administrator of the Division of Education, Youth Affairs and Sports, after the division failed to renew his employment contract.

Waldron was represented by attorney Martin George.

In his lawsuit, Waldron said he was not the official who awarded the contract in question and complained that the division did not invite him to be a part of its investigations, which found alleged breaches in the award. He said he was dismissed by the division, which refused to renew his contract.

In her ruling, Justice Margaret Mohammed held that the division breached the rules of natural justice and procedural fairness by failing to give Waldron an opportunity to be heard. She also held that he was not treated fairly and quashed the decision of the division not to renew his employment contract.

The matter has been sent back to the division for a review of that decision. The division was also ordered to pay his costs. The THA was represented by attorney Akianne Duke.

The court appearance on Monday was brief and Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions George Busby, who appeared on behalf of the State, indicated that he had fulfilled his disclosure obligations under the common law and at the next sitting the prosecution will be in a position to proceed with the preliminary inquiry.

Holding for Seecharan’s attorney Larry Williams was Jamila Sealy.

Seecharan is charged with murdering Banfield sometime between December 4 and December 9 at Charlotte Street in Port-of-Spain.

Banfield went missing on December 5 and three days later, her decomposing body was found at the warehouse of IAM and Company.

Seecharan, who was an employee at the store, was charged with the murder about two weeks later.

He will return to court on April 3.

Last Thursday, citizens conducted a citizens arrest of a man who was said to be in a vehicle with a six-year-old girl, who was in her uniform at the time. The man was observed with his zipper down and without underwear.

He was tied up and the Arima police were notified. He was later questioned by police and statements were taken from persons, following which the charge was laid.

The minister said the combined efforts of members of the protective services made Carnival “relatively safe” for locals and visitors. He explained that all police officers on leave were called out and extra officers were assigned to cover the main areas of Carnival activity in the country such as Port-of-Spain and San Fernando.

Dillon said members of the Reserve Defence Force were assigned to guard duties to allow members of the regular Defence Force to support the police. Dillon also said the Coast Guard increased its maritime patrols in this country’s territorial waters and in certain strategic locations.

53 in petroleum profits tax and $538,533,124 in supplemental petroleum tax.

The minister explained the non-collection of petroleum profits tax from Petrotrin began under the PP, “when in 2013, they failed to collect $196 million; in 2014, they failed to collect $1 billion; in 2015, they failed to collect $566 million.” He said the deficit for last year is $2 million. “I can say that under this government, Petrotrin has resumed once again, to start paying taxes to the Treasury which it was allowed not to do under the UNC (United National Congress) government,” Imbert declared. Responding to additional questions from Mark, Imbert said, “This gift of $1.8 billion in taxes is similar to the gift of $5 million in backpay which we were gifted upon assuming office.

It is not a simple matter but we are addressing it in a proactive and professional manner.” In response to another question, Imbert said Petrotrin owes the State royalties to the tune of $1, 210,868,765 for the production and monetisation of crude oil and condensate. Imbert also indicated he was trying to get “further and better particulars” as to why Petrotrin retained Canadian company SNC Lavalin as the project manager for its Ultra-Low Sulphur Diesel Plant.

As an Opposition MP while the PP was in office in 2012, Imbert raised concerns about allegations of corruption against SNC Lavalin, after the PP awarded the company the contract to build the $1 billion Penal hospital. That hospital has not been built to date.

Noting that SNC Lavalin was first retained by the People’s National Movement (PNM) in 2009 and this remain unchanged under the PP, Imbert said, “I cannot explain why the UNC government for five years and three months maintained a relationship with SNC Lavalin.” The minister also told the Senate that the percentage of natural gas sold by BGTT (now Shell) to the National Gas Company from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016 was 22.8 percent.