A 23-year-old car wash owner was killed on Saturday night and his girlfriend shot in the abdomen because they were in a “strange car” in a not too friendly neighbourhood, according to police and relatives.

Speaking with the media at the Forensic Science Centre, St James yesterday, relatives of Terry Alleyne said the last of five children was not involved in anything illegal. Police also confirmed that they had nothing on Alleyne.

Police said Alleyne, of Julien Terrace, Majuba Cross Road, Petit Valley, was at Cameron Hill, Petit Valley, around 10.30 pm when a yellow band maxi pulled in the path of the Nissan B14 he was in and opened fire.

He was shot four times and his girlfriend Shinelle Piango, was shot once. Both were taken to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital where Alleyne died while being treated. Piango is warded in a stable condition, police said.

Relatives said Alleyene went to the area to drop off two children who attended a birthday party and because of a shooting in the area recently involving police and they believed the unprovoked attack was as a result of men in the area wary of being targets. Police said they suspected that Alleyne was targeted because he was not from the area.

Cameron Hill, police said, is a known crime hot spot area in the Western Division.

The relatives said Alleyene was well liked by all and loved children but did not have any of his own.

His killing is recorded by the Homicide Bureau as murder 271, for the same period last year there were 256 murders.

Shopping on High Street, San Fernando, came to a standstill yesterday morning as bandits shot a security guard who attempted to stop them from carrying out a daring daylight heist at a jewelry store.

Shoppers scampered as a shots rang out, shattering the mid morning peace.

Screams echoed from store attendants and shoppers alike, as Matthew Pierre, 41, fell to the ground with a bullet in his leg, as he made a brave attempt to stop the theft.

Up until yesterday evening, Pierre was warded in stable condition at the San Fernando General Hospital.

According to a police report, around 11.30 am, three men entered Jemtel Jewellery Store located in RRM Plaza on High Street.

One of them jumped over the glass counter and unpacked several trays which contained gold and diamond rings and chains.

As the men ran out the building with the loot, Pierre, the unarmed security guard, attempted to stop them. However, this act of bravery was rewarded with a bullet to his leg.

With the guard down, frightened shoppers and workers alike stepped aside giving the bandits free passage to run through Carlton Centre on the opposite side of High Street, and up to St James Street, where they disappeared.

Pierre, who began to suffer shock from heavy blood loss, was taken to hospital by ambulance.

Police swooped down on the scene and gave chase, but up until late evening, no one had been held in connection with the crime.

Insp Don Gajdhar, Insp Steve Persad, Sgt Dale Ramroop and Sgt Natasha Morrison responded and took statements from several witnesses.

CCTV footage from the plaza and surrounding businesses was also obtained. Sgt Ramroop is continuing investigations.

In an immediate response, San Fernando mayor Junia Regrello said while he did not have all of the facts, he was very concerned by the event.

He thanked God that Pierre was alive and did not have to pay the price for his bravery with his life.

Regrello said citizens had to be more aware of the risks and challenges as bandits became more desperate.

He said: “I know the police are working very hard to increase patrols in the dense areas where we have business.

“I will be in touch with the police in terms of how we increase surveillance and deter those who may have ill intentions in the future.

“In terms of people clamouring for the presence of soldiers, I would, of course, make a request to the Minister of National Security Edmund Dillon, as we get into the Divali and Christmas season.”

A third man has been charged with the murders of Haffiza Rose Mohammed 56, and 13-year-old school boy Videsh Subar.appeared before Magistrate Gloria Jasmath in the Arima court.

Devon Edwards appeared before Magistrate Gloria Jasmath yesterday charged with the crime. He is also charged with robbery with aggravation.

On July 17, Solomon Baksh, younger brother of murder victim Haffiza Rose Mohammed and his co-accused Wayne Liverpool of North Eastern Settlement, Ojoe Sangre Grande appeared before Magistrate Gloria Jasmath and were remanded in prison to make their next court appearance on August 14.

Edwards, who was dressed in blue jersey and blue jeans, kept turning his head smiling with a woman who was sat in the courtroom.

The charges were laid by PC Danny Moonsammy of Homicide Bureau Region 11, Arouca.

Mohammed, 56, and her neighbour Subar, were both found bound, with their throats slit at Mohammed’s, Ajim Baksh Trace, Malabar, Arima home on June 28. Mohammed was a caretaker of Subar since he was a baby

Edwards is also accused of robbing the victims of cellphones, power tools, a flatscreen television, TT$10,000, US$900 jewelry among other items. Edwards was not represented and he will join his other two accomplices when they will all return to court on August 14.

​RALPH BANWARIE

The Prisons Officers Association has called for the resignation of National Security Minister Edmund Dillon as they stepped up their demands for better conditions, particularly at the Maximum Security Prison (MSP) in Golden Grove, Arouca.

They also called on Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to intervene, saying they could no longer work under such adverse conditions including no alarm at the MSP resulting in their lives being at continuous risk.

At a press conference held outside the Golden Grove Prison in Arouca yesterday, association members were supported by heads of various trade unions including the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU), Postal Workers Association, Fire Officers Association, Amalgamated Workers Union and the Seamen and Waterfront Workers Trade Union.

Addressing members of the media president of the Prisons Officers Association, Ceron Richards, accused Dillon of not caring about the safety of officers, saying the (MSP) had been functioning without an alarm system for the longest while.

Richards said there were about 3,800 inmates of which 1,700 comprised the remand population.

Describing prisons conditions Richards said, “All of our prisons are suffering from lack of infrastructural development. Our systems are old and we have a $6 billion budgetary allocation every year and we are still in this situation where the prisons cannot fulfil its mandate.

“Gates are malfunctioning. There is no alarm at MSP and we are continuing in an untenable situation. We wrote to the Prime Minister and we are asking for one thing....fire that minister of national security.”

Richards described Dillon as being “unresponsive” to the plight of “inmates, officers and the prison system.”

“He is very busy doing absolutely nothing for the Prisons Service. We want the Prime Minister to know you have a national issue on your hands,” Richards added.

He said while Rowley was “up and down the country talking about crime prevention” the heart of the matter lay with an efficient prison service.

But if such a service was non-existent then crime prevention would be crippled, Richards said.

President General of the OWTU Ancil Roget said safety of citizens was everybody’s business and restorative justice must also play a key role in shaping a healthy society.

He urged that priority must be given in establishing judicial court space to ensure justice would always be delivered on time.

“The Prime Minister was written to about the state of our nation’s prisons and we could be looking at a serious eruption in the prisons and when that happens then everybody would blame everybody else.

“If we do not fix our prisons people would go in and come out worse than when they went in. We are the ones incarcerated in our homes while the bandits roam free,” Roget said.

Yesterday also marked the two- year anniversary of the July 24, 2015 jail break when three prisoners—Allan ‘Scanny’ Martin, Hassan Atwell, and Christopher ‘Monster’ Selby shot their way out of the Port-of-Spain prison.

A disciplinary tribunal was appointed by the Public Service Commission (PSC) to probe the conduct of three officers, Acting Superintendent of Prison Wilbert Lovell and Prison Officer Twos Lancelot Duntin and Mervyn Pierre.

Last week at a press conference, also held by the association, attorney Farid Scoon who is representing Lovell and Duntin, said he wrote to the commission and was still waiting on “full disclosure” from the PSC as he was yet to receive documents and statements.

Efforts to contact Dillon were unsuccessful.

Although the current administration has continued to place much emphasis on the provision of education across all levels, senior government officials have said that it is simply impossible to continue the wholesale funding for the tertiary sector due to several pressing reasons.

Chief among the reasons was the current economic constraints which necessitated an urgent revision of the Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses (GATE) programme and the fact that that a comprehensive review had not been undertaken since its introduction in 2004.

GATE was a replacement for the UNC’s Dollar-for-Dollar Education Plan which started in 2001.

Blasting the People’s National Movement (PNM) for its part in what he dubbed an “erosion” of decades of progress of the education system, former Tertiary Education Minister Fazal Karim yesterday accused them of successively dismantling the system within the last two years.

However, in an immediate rebuttal - Education Minister Anthony Garcia responded that the PNM remained committed to providing an education for as they adhered to the mandate of the 2000 Dakar Commitment to Education for All.

Pointing out that tertiary education participation had increased from eight per cent in 2002 to an estimated 65.23 per cent in 2015, Garcia said the targeted tertiary participation rate of at least 60 per cent by 2015 has therefore, been exceeded.

He said, “The current level of tertiary participation compares favourably with the rate for developed countries.”

Karim argued that the incompetence and negligence of the PNM had brought T&T closer to a failed state as prior to GATE and Dollar-for-Dollar, many middle income and working-class families could not have afforded tertiary education.

This was immediately refuted by Garcia who said, “In 2016, the GATE Programme was reviewed in order to ensure sustainability of funding. The National Consultations on Education and a Task Force were instrumental in assisting the Government in its review.”

“It was noted that most of the recipients of the GATE Programme are from families which fall in the middle to high income groups of the society.”

Garcia said declining local and global energy prices had led to concerns over the sustainability of current expenditure levels via the GATE Programme.

He added: “Currently, the Government is experiencing significant reductions in revenues and foreign exchange earnings as a result of the falling prices of oil and gas.”

Garcia said when the GATE Programme was first introduced, oil prices ranged from US $40 to US$ 50 per barrel.

Garcia stressed: “Students whose monthly household income is less than $10,000 will be fully funded under the GATE Programme.”

“Where the household income is above $10,000 per month but less than $30,000, students will be eligible for 75 per cent of tuition fees. Students whose household income exceeds $30,000 per month will be required to pay 50 per cent of tuition fees”

He went on further that while means testing is optional; those not wishing to complete the application would be required to pay 50 per cent of their tuition fees.

Meanwhile, in order to assist students with tuition fees if required, the loan ceiling for the Higher Education Loan Programme (HELP) was increased from $25,000 to $35,000 for students studying locally.

The minister said only a small percentage of the student population, that being three per cent, had accessed loans in the past.

He said in this regard, Government was guided by current national economic challenges but had also agreed to consider a more holistic calculation of means testing by August 2018, taking into consideration other factors such as the size of student’s household and household assets.

From the inception of the GATE Programme in 2004 up to the 2015/2016 academic year, Government has spent over $6.3 billion covering programmes that range from Technical and Vocational Training (TVET) to PhD studies.

 The Government has won its bid to appoint a pair of provisional liquidators for CL Financial (CLF).

Delivering an oral judgement at the Hall of Justice, Port-of-Spain, last evening, Appellate Judges Peter Rajkumar, Charmaine Pemberton and Andre Des Vignes reversed the decision of High Court Judge Kevin Ramcharan, who had rejected the Government’s application last week.

As part of its ruling, the court allowed the Government’s lawyers and those for a group of shareholders opposed to the move to wind up the company, to determine the remit of the liquidators.

The liquidators selected by the Government are Hugh Dickson and Marcus Wide of international accounting firm Grant Thornton.

In their discussions, head of the State’s legal team Deborah Peake, SC, explained that the provisional liquidators will have less power than traditional liquidators, as they were merely hired to assess the company’s assets and ensure they are not disposed of pending the determination of the petition to wind up the company.

If successful with the petition, which is also before Ramcharan, the Government will then be able to appoint traditional liquidators who would seek to sell the company’s assets in order to repay Government its remaining $15 billion debt and the debts owed to other creditors. Under the agreement, almost all of the decisions of the provisional liquidators will have to be approved by the court.

At the start of yesterday’s hearing, the shareholders sought to withdraw their move to retake control of the company’s board, which was the catalyst for the Government’s action in making the winding up petition.

Their attorney, John Jeremie, SC, said his clients were willing to postpone the vote on appointing Carlton Reis and Kirk Carpenter as two additional board members, which was scheduled to take place at an extraordinary meeting of shareholders yesterday afternoon. (See page A5)

Jeremie said: “There is no immediate or imminent threat of the composition of the board changing over the next three months, therefore there is no need for the court to grant the order for provisional liquidators to be appointed. The Government is and will remain in control until at least the end of October.”

In response, Peake said the reversal in position did not affect Government’s plan to recoup its debt, as the move by the shareholders to retake control of the board was not its sole concern in making its decision to have the company wound up.

“We did not rush to have the company wound up. We came to court when it became clear that the company does not have the assets to pay its debt,” Peake said.

In its decision, the Appeal Court agreed with Ramcharan’s assessment over the company’s insolvency, but said he made an error when determining the need for the provisional liquidators.

Rajkumar said Ramcharan was mistaken when he said the State had to prove the shareholders would dispose of assets if they had gone through with their plans. The Appeal Court instead agreed with Peake, who had claimed the company’s assets were being disposed of in its normal day-to-day operations because it was making continuous losses, including a deficit of $3.5 million in April.

“An insolvent company is not supposed to be trading. This company is not temporarily insolvent, this company is chronically insolvent. Since 2009 the Government has been in rescue mode to see what can be done to recover the debt without liquidation, but there comes a time when enough is enough,” Peake said.

In their submissions, Jeremie and Lynette Maharaj, SC, said their clients were concerned about the appointment of the liquidators as it would be catastrophic for the company.

“I understand that the Government has a concern how its debt is to be repaid. These shareholders want to repay the Government but they are not getting the co-operation of the Government. Once you put the liquidators in it is going to be counter-effective at the end of the day,” Maharaj said.

She also questioned the timing of the Government’s move, as she said it had been in effective control of the company over the past eight years.

The winding up petition came up for hearing before Ramcharan minutes before the appeal was due to commence yesterday morning.

In a brief hearing before Ramcharan, the shareholders’ lawyers indicated that they had filed their application to represent the company in the petition. Ramcharan adjourned the hearing until this morning.

Ravi Heffes-Doon is also representing the Government, while Maharaj’s husband, Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, SC, is appearing alongside her and Jeremie for the shareholders, who together hold over 60 per cent stake in the company.

The Government made the application and a corresponding winding up petition for the company earlier this month, after the shareholders signalled their intention to change the composition of the board, which was government-controlled since Clico’s bailout.

As a condition of the bailout, CLF, in its shareholder’s agreement with the government, had agreed to honour its subsidiary’s debt and allow government to select four members, including the chairman, to its seven-member board. The agreement, which was renewed 17 times since being first signed, expired in August last year and the shareholders refused to agree to a new deal.

The shareholders’ refusal was reportedly based on the failure of the Ministry of Finance to consider a proposal from independent auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which suggested that they be given control of the company and allowed to renegotiate the repayment arrangement for the $15 billion still owed to the Government.

They are claiming that the company’s debt to the Government is inflated and the company is not insolvent, as is required for winding up proceedings.

While the shareholders yesterday agreed to postpone their bid to take over the company’s board to October, it may now be rendered unnecessary as the company and its board would cease to exist once the liquidation process is initiated in the event that the winding up petition before Ramcharan is successful.

A High Court Judge has deferred the hearing for an injunction to reinstate the former managing director of CL Financial (CLF) Marlon Holder.

In the midst on ongoing legal battles between the Government and the company’s shareholders over proposed moves to wind-up the insolvent company, Holder yesterday filed a lawsuit challenging his dismissal on June 28 and seeking an injunction to reverse it.

But when the case came up for hearing before Justice Frank Seepersad in the Port-of-Spain High Court, Seepersad said he needed to hear submissions from the company’s lawyers, who asked for an adjournment as they were only served with the lawsuit hours before.

Seepersad also said the injunction was not urgent, as Holder made the application almost a month after he was fired. Seepersad said the wait was also necessary as his decision on the issue would be affected by the outcome of the Government’s appeal over the appointment of two provisional liquidators for the company later that evening. The Government eventually won the appeal.

While Seepersad said he wished to deal with the case expediently, he said he would be only able to accommodate a trial when the 2017/2018 law terms opens in mid-September as he would be abroad next month.

Holder’s lawyer, Theresa Hadad and CLF’s lawyer Elton Prescott, SC, agreed, indicating they were also travelling abroad during the Judiciary’s vacation period.

At Hadad’s request, Prescott gave an undertaking that the company would not seek to replace Holder pending the final determination of the case. Prescott also admitted that although Holder’s role as a director on all CLF subsidiary boards ceased upon the termination of his contract, he was still an Angostura board member.

In response, Hadad raised the fact that her client had been denied access to Angostura’s company information since being fired and could not perform his duties, including appearing at a board meeting on Thursday. Prescott assured Hadad that he would be be provided with the information in time of the meeting.

Central to Holder’s case is the decision taken by four government-selected CLF board members - Rolph Balgobin (chairman), Kirby Anthony Hosang, Terrence Bharath and Ingrid Lashley - to terminate his contract last month.

In his affidavit filed in support of his claim, Holder, who held the post since 2010, said he was informed of the decision after three shareholder-selected directors, Albert Tom Yew, Frederick Gilkes and Trevor Marshall, had left the board meeting on June 28. Holder is claiming that while a quorum of four board members is allowed, the decision on his termination rests with the shareholders according to the company’s by-laws.

During Hadad’s preliminary submissions, Seepersad intervened to say that in addition to the company’s internal constitution, he would also have to consider the relationship between CLF and the Government following the $23 billion bail-out of its subsidiary Clico in 2009.

The ruling of the Appeal Court to appoint provisional liquidators for CL Financial can have unintended ramifications for this country’s economy, chairman of the CLICO Policyholders Group Peter Permell said last evening.

Contacted after the ruling, Permell said while the court’s decision was respected, it meant “bad news for the taxpayers, shareholders and the economy.”

“While we respect the ruling of the court we do not agree with it and we believe there is going to be some fall out in terms of untended consequences. Perception is also going to play a part in the whole scheme of things, but we will only know the impact of the ruling when the public digests it, especially the investment community,” Permell added, noting filing an appeal was also always an option.

The ruling, which came last night, left many shareholders who were present in the court disappointed and surprised.

“I don’t expect a large conglomerate like CL Financial simply taking the ruling just like that. The best thing to do would be to appeal the court’s decision,” one shareholder said.

Earlier yesterday, the much anticipated special general meeting of CL Financial, at which shareholders wanted to table proposals to have two additional members added to the board, was put off to October at the court’s request earlier in the day. Several shareholders met at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port-of-Spain for just under an hour before taking the decision.

Permell, who spoke to the media about the ramifications of appointing a provisional liquidator, said, “The question of appointing a provisional liquidator would almost be like an indelible stain on the company and once you appoint a provisional liquidator that sends all sorts of signals to the financial community and the economy of T&T.

“This is not a parlour or a grocery around the corner. This is a multi-billion dollar company that you are seeking to appoint a provisional liquidator in the first instance and then a winding up order to appoint a full fledged liquidator to have the company wound up, so these are matters you have to take very seriously.”

An employee from the Port-of-Spain General Hospital (PoSGH) and his father, a retiree who also worked at the hospital, were both ambushed and killed by gunmen in Laventille yesterday, while responding to a call of an accident along Picton Road involving one of their vehicles.

Fitzroy Daniel, 65, and his son Jabari, 25, were taken to the PoSGH after the attack but Daniel was pronounced dead on arrival. Jabari died while undergoing emergency surgery hours later. Both father and son lived at Boxhill Trace, Laventille.

The men were shot in the back of their heads and torsos around 12.30 pm by attackers using high-powered rifles, according to investigating officers.

The T&T Guardian was told that Jabari, who works at the PoSGH’s Engineering Department, Refrigeration, reported for duty yesterday when at shortly before noon he received a phone call from a relative informing him that one of his vehicles was involved in an accident with two other cars and a truck along Picton Road near Dan Kelly.

A friend close to the family, who wished not to be identified, said Jabari left in his red station wagon to get his father before going to the area of the accident.

“From what we hear, is that by the time they got there the fellas around there were very rowdy and things began to heat up. By then, it look like when Jabari and his dad decided to leave the scene to go back up the hill that the gunman run up on them from where the father sat in the passenger seat and opened fire,” the close friend said.

It is believed Jabari, on hearing the gunshots, stopped the car, got out and attempted to run away, but the gunman chased after him and shot him several times in the head and left side of the back. The gunman then ran off.

Police are yet to determine a motive for the killing, as although it may be linked to the accident they are not ruling out that it may have been a hit on Jabari.

At the PoSGH yesterday, Jabari’s co-workers described him as a “quiet and hard working” individual.

“All of us were very shocked to hear what happened. We knew Fitzroy very well and he retired about five years ago and just recently, I saw him and I asked him if he wasn’t ageing,” one of Jabari’s co-workers said.

“Jabari was a real nice and quiet person who was always in work. Just last week he used his other car (the blue one) to come to work and this morning (yesterday) he came with the red one.”

Meanwhile, in an unrelated incident, four people were shot in San Juan just after midnight yesterday while liming at a lane off Shende Street, Sunshine Avenue.

One of the victims, identified as Kareem Syndey, 29, was pronounced dead at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mount Hope. The others, Ronnie Seecharan, Cornelius Samuel and Davien Garth, remain warded at hospital in critical conditions.

Police said the group of men were liming when they were ambushed by gunmen at about 12.20 am. A motive is yet to be determined in that shooting incident.

The murder toll now stands at 279 for the year so far.

Investigations are continuing into both incidents.

Brennon Rampersad was freed yesterday of the 2007 charge of causing the death of his friend and neighbour, Craig Harripersad.

Harripersad, 15 was a passenger in a  white Sunny sedan driven by Rampersad, then 18, on May 12, 2007 when Rampersad lost control of the vehicle and ploughed into a truck driven by Birsingh Gadraj.

Harripersad died while receiving treatment at hospital the following day.

The trial against Rampersad, who is now a fire officer attached to the Siparia Fire Station, began on July 13 before Justice Kathy Ann Waterman-Latchoo in the San Fernando High Court.

Yesterday, the jury deliberated for one hour and 40 minutes before returning with a not-guilty verdict. Attorneys Kevin Ratiram and Chris Ramlal represented Rampersad, now 28, while state attorneys Shabana Shah and Norma Peters led the prosecution.

During the trial, PC Roger Fortune testified that he was a passenger in a police vehicle driving along the SS Erin Road when he witnessed a white Sunny car coming in the opposite direction at a fast speed.

Fortune said he alerted the driver of the police vehicle, Sgt Harry and Harry pulled their police vehicle to the extreme left of the roadway and stopped. He said the Sunny passed them at a high speed and then veered into their lane behind them, colliding with a truck that was also behind them. Fortune said he contacted the Siparia Police Station, the Fire Station and an ambulance. 

Also testifying for the prosecution, retired Cpl Khalif Karim said he was received a report on the day of the accident and when he went on the scene, he observed the front of the white Sunny car pinned under the front of the truck. He said he saw four occupants in the car including Rampersad who was in the driver’s seat.

He said after fire officers used the Jaws of Life to free the occupants and Rampersad came out of the vehicle, he asked him how the accident had happened. Karim testified that Rampersad told him he came around the corner, lost control of his vehicle and collided with the truck.

But defence witness, Rampersad’s uncle Avelino Montano testified that on the day of the accident, he received a message and went to the scene with his cousin, Steve. He said when he got there, he saw Rampersad in the drivers seat and the steering wheel of the car was pinned against him. The car’s windshield had been shattered in the accident.

He said he and Steve climbed onto the car’s bonnet and through the space where the windshield would have been, they pulled the steering up and away from Rampersad. Montano said the steering budged a small distance and Rampersad began to cough up blood. He said he then lifted Rampersad out of the car where he was placed on a stretcher and taken away by ambulance.

Montano said at no time did Rampersad ever speak to anyone at the scene as he appeared to be unconscious.

Last Wednesday, Rampersad testified on his own behalf, telling the jury he was driving on the day when he came to the corner. He said he slowed to about 30 miles per hour and then began accelerating again. He said as he turned the corner, he saw a police van about six feet in front of him in his lane coming towards him.

He said he also saw a truck on the opposite lane. He said the police van appeared closer than the truck and he panicked and instinctively pulled to the left to avoid colliding with the police vehicle.

He testified that he felt a vibration on his steering wheel and saw he was headed to a ditch on the side of the road. He then pulled to the right to try to get the car back on the road. The next thing he remembered was waking up in the hospital.

He said due to injuries sustained in the accident, he was unable to walk until about five months later. He said he couldn’t immediately remember the accident and around mid-August 2007, he began getting flashbacks as to how the accident happened.

With crime in T&T almost a part of people’s daily lives, it was business as usual for pedestrians and motorists passing along the Southern Main Road, Rousillac, Monday, as 50-year-old Krishna Girdharrysingh was being hacked with a cutlass by a man described as a menace in the community. Nobody lifted a finger to help the man as he was being attacked.

However, Girdharrysingh’s family eventually breathed a sigh of relief after doctors at the San Fernando General Hospital wheeled him out of the Intensive Care Unit and admitted him to a ward, after working for hours to save his life. His attacker’s blade had left him with a gaping chop on his head that splintered his skull, a fractured hand and deep cuts to his shoulders and knees.

Police said Girdharrysingh, a driver on a CEPEP project, had just picked up chicken at Triple K’s Zesty Roti and Bar-b-que, in an area popularly known as “Pepper Sauce Hill,” around 3.30 pm when the incident happened. Traffic was bustling along the main road when the suspect was seen walking with the cutlass in his hand. CCTV footage from a neighbouring business showed Gidharrysingh’s back was turned from the suspect and as he opened his door and sat in the pick-up, his attacker pounced on him with a flurry of chops.

Girdharrysingh tried to run out of the pick-up but he was floored by the constant blows to his body. Within the 38 seconds of the attack, five vehicles passed, three of them slowing down but none stopping to help. Two men could also be seen in the video watching as the drama unfolded.

Gidharrysingh was left at the road bleeding before Debbie Kenhigh, who works at the business, ran out with ice and towels to stem the bleeding. Eventually, his employer picked him up and took him to the hospital.

Kenhigh told the T&T Guardian yesterday that she immediately contacted the police and although she could have been attacked as well, she needed to help her friend.

“There were plenty people who could have helped. If I am a woman and I could have gone out there, other people could have done something as well. It was not that I was not afraid, I just was not thinking about anything else but him at the time because he was just there on the roadside and could not move. I told him that I brought ice and all he was asking was if it would burn. He was in pain,” Kenhigh said.

Responding to the attack, La Brea police, including PC Maharaj, PC Dyer and PC Mendoza, went to a bushy area in Judah Gardens where they found the 27-year-old suspect. He attempted to run, but the officers held him and found the weapon nearby. Cpl Thompson and PC Maharaj are continuing investigations.

Residents fearful

Girdharrysingh’s father, Roy Ramsoomair, 74, said the attack was unprovoked, but surmised it might have been caused by a dispute over State lands. At his home yesterday, a troubled Ramsoomair said the suspect lived in another area in Rousillac and after he was thrown out by his step father, he built up a shack in the bush.

Ramsoomair said he had been gardening in that area for 50 years and one day when he went to reap crops, the suspect confronted him about being on the land.

“He told me to get off the land, all of this is his. For the past 50 years I’ve been planting on this land, which belongs to the government. This was just last year and the boy threatened me, saying he would chop me and that he had a gun and he would shoot me. At my age, I alone can’t go onto the land so I take my two sons and nephew with me to get stuff and bring home to cook,” Ramsoomair said.

He said he made several reports to police and on one occasion two officers responded, but they got an emergency call and had to leave before they could speak to the suspect. The officers never returned. He said if they had intervened back then, maybe yesterday’s attack would not have occurred.

Several neighbours said they were fearful of the suspect as he had attacked others before. On one occasion, they said he struck a man on his head with a hammer. They said he faced a charge, but returned to the community after some time.

For his part in the robbery of a passenger in his vehicle in 2016, Edmund Sewlal was sentenced yesterday to six years hard labour.

His co-accused, Felix Bhola, was sentenced to four years hard labour.

Both men were on trial for the robbery with aggravation of a 54-year-old man on July 12, 2016.

They were both found guilty before Magistrate Cheryl Ann Antoine in the San Fernando First Magistrates Court yesterday.

The trial began on July 3, 2017 before Antoine.

Attorney Ainsley Lucky appeared on behalf of Bhola, 39 while Sewlal, who is 49, was unrepresented. Sewlal, of Pascal Road, Gasparillo, and Bhola of Tabaquite were charged by PC Lyndon Ramcharan of the Gasparillo Police Station.

During the trial, the court heard that on around 10.30 pm July 12, 2016, Sewlal was driving a Mazda hatchback vehicle in which Bhola was a back seat passenger and a third unidentified man was the front seat passenger.

Under the pretense that he was working ‘PH’ taxi, Sewlal picked up the victim along the Gasparillo Link Road. The victim asked to be taken to Marabella but instead, on reaching close to Reform Junction, Sewlal pulled to the left side of the road and stopped. 

The court heard that the man sitting in the front seat pulled out a cutlass and told the victim “Pass everything you have.”

The victim handed over $260 in cash, a Nokia cell phone valued $300, a pack of cigarettes and a lighter.

The front seat passenger then instructed the man to get out of the car, while Sewlal also came out of the vehicle and opened the trunk. He told the court that he opened the trunk so the victim would not see the vehicle’s number plate as he drove off.

Both Sewlal and Bhola had claimed they had no part to play in the robbery and it was done solely by the unidentified third person.

However, in handing down the sentence, Antoine told Sewlal that being the driver of the vehicle, he had some control of the environment.

Sewlal, a father of three has ten previous convictions of a similar nature which were taken into consideration for sentencing. Bhola, however, had no convictions or pending matters before the court.

Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan yesterday admitted that the delay in Monday’s maiden voyage of the Cabo Star from Port-of-Spain to Tobago was as a result of a manpower issue by the Port Authority of T&T.

Also, the vessel which should have taken five hours to sail the sea bridge, arrived at the Tobago port three hours late.

The vessel was called into service earlier than scheduled after the Atlantic Provider experienced mechanical problems last Friday.

Yesterday, president of the Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce Demi John Cruickshank said the vessel arrived in Tobago at 2.20 am.

Trucks on board the boat were offloaded and reloaded at 5.20 am.

“We were up whole night. We did not get any sleep. But I am not too sure what happened after that because the vessel was not in the harbour and it left at 10.30 this morning. So I don’t know what happened between the loading of the trucks and when the boat departed,” Cruickshank said.

In going forward, Cruickshank said Patt would have to sort out these hiccups.

“I know they (the Port Authority) had some issues with the clearance of the paper work for the boat to sail yesterday. That is why the boat left Port-of-Spain late last night (Monday) which was around 6.30 pm. In terms of why it was delayed in Tobago this morning I am not sure.”

Cruickshank said they expected to face teething problems with the newest cargo vessel.

“The same thing happened with the Super Fast Galicia when it came here. The first week we had a lot of trials and errors. But things worked out in a few days,” Cruickshank said.

Cruickshank said he anticipated that withing a week, the vessel would operate smoothly.

Sinanan admitted that the boat sailed late, as he threw the blame on the shoulders of Patt.

“You would expect that after the first and second voyage you would may have some challenges. I understand that the delay was as result of the manpower at the port and not the vessel. I don’t think it was anything major. It was the first voyage and we left Trinidad late. But I think everybody is happy with the capacity. 103 trucks went up with goods.”

The Cabo Star can accommodate 130 trucks.

Calls to the authority’s chairman, Alison Lewis, went unanswered yesterday.

Deputy chief executive officer of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM) Col Dave Williams says there is need for an effective Incident Command System.

Williams said that during a brief address to yesterday’s disaster management training workshop for local government representatives. It was held in collaboration with PODS Emergency Management Consultancy and Solutions.

Port-of-Spain mayor Joel Martinez and Arima mayor Lisa Morris-Julian were among those who attended the event held at City Hall, Port-of-Spain.

Local government representatives are usually among the first responders for any disaster.

Williams told them that while their response was very important it was very important “you ensure that a management system exists to manage those responses you make.”

He said that in the wake of major flooding in Diego Martin a few years ago.

He said the management system that was in place then had two major problems. He said the first was that people did not know about it and the second was that “it was not appropriate to manage what was required.”

Williams said because of that “five years later I am being asked to pay a bill for more than $1 million for services rendered that we can’t verify.”

Also speaking at the event was managing director of PODS Emergency Management Consultancy & Solutions, Stacy-Ann Pi Osoria.

She said ICS was a standardised all hazards incident management concept used by single or multiple agencies to manage and control from the smallest incidents to the largest catastrophes.

Dabreau said whether one was a minister, permanent secretary, mayor, CEO, chairman or councillor “you all need to be aware of how ICS can work as it will help you take full control of any emergency.”

She told local government representatives that they can be assured that “an institutionalised ICS in your region will help you to cope with incidents of any kind or complexity.”

She said the system allows “personnel from a wide variety of agencies to integrate rapidly a common management structure, providing logistical and administrative support to operational staff whilst being cost effective.”

Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi has proposed legislation to deal with the 52 part heard matters left in limbo by Marcia Ayers-Caesar.

The proposed legislation is also aimed at avoiding a recurrence of a similar situation and a such the Government is “eager to proceed” with it.

The corrective action proposed by Al-Rawi is the Miscellaneous Provisions (summary Courts and Preliminary Enquiries) Bill 2017.

It is to be presented to the Parliament soon.

Al-Rawi has written to president of the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago (LATT) Senior Counsel Douglas Mendes seeking “urgent advice” on the Bill.

On April 12 Ayers-Caesar was sworn in as a High Court judge.

Before her ascension to the High Court Ayers-Caesar held the post of chief magistrate.

Ayers-Caesar resigned as a judge on April 27, however, after there was some discrepancy in the number of matters she had outstanding at the Magistrates’ Court.

Ayers-Caesar originally provided a list to Chief Justice Ivor Archie stating there were 28 matters outstanding.

An independent audit initiated by Archie revealed there were actually 52 part-heard matters.

There has been ongoing dissension by the accused in the matter since then.

“The issue of the outstanding indictable and summary matters that were part-heard before Her Worship Ayers-Caesar continues to be unresolved,” Al-Rawi stated in his letter to Mendes.

“The Government has been urged to consider exigent legislative intervention in order to ensure the orderly disposition of these matters and prevent any further delay and/or future recurrence of such stymied progress in criminal matters due to administrative factors,” the letter stated.

Al-Rawi said the Miscellaneous Provision (Summary Courts and Preliminary Enquiries) Bill 2017 is aimed at clearing the way for the matters to be resolved.

“In respect of preliminary enquiries, the attached Bill seeks to expand the existing limited jurisdiction of the Director of Public Prosecutions to prefer a voluntary bill of indictment pursuant to Section 23(8) of the Indictable Offences (Preliminary Enquiry) Act Chap 12:01 to include instances where a presiding Magistrate is unable to complete or continue a preliminary enquiry, for any reason,” the letter stated.

“Further, where the DPP does not prefer a voluntary bill of indictment and a Magistrate is unable to complete a preliminary enquiry for any reason, the Bill seeks to create a power for another Magistrate to hold a new preliminary enquiry or continue the preliminary enquiry in the interest of justice and with consent of parties,” it stated.

The Bill proposes to “create the power” for another magistrate to take conduct a “new trial or continue the trial with consent of parties” when the presiding magistrate cannot complete it for whatever reason.

“In respect of summary matters, the Bill seeks to create a power for another magistrate to conduct a new trial or continue the hearing of that matter, for any reason,” the letter stated.

“The Government is eager to proceed with this legislation and as a valued stakeholder, will be grateful for the input of the Law Association before the Bill is presented to the Parliament in the upcoming week,” Al-Rawi’s letter to Mendes stated.

The Miscellaneous Provisions (Summary Courts and Preliminary Enquiries) Bill 2017 has proposed amendments to Section 6(2) of the Summary Courts Act Chap 4:20 as well amendments to Sections 14, 23 and 28 of the Indictable Offences (preliminary Enquiry) Act Chap 12:01.

Last Wednesday attorneys representing Ayers-Caesar filed legal action in the High Court against the Judicial and Legal Services Commission (JLSC) and the Attorney General representing President Anthony Carmona after she claimed she was forced to resign as a judge because of the discrepancy in the number of part heard matters she still had.

In an affidavit filed in support of her lawsuit, Ayers-Caesar stated that magistrates are “generally not responsible” for the delays which are caused when preliminary enquiries have to be adjourned.

The accused, police and lawyers all have to take some blame too, Ayers-Caesar stated.

In her affidavit Ayers-Caesar said she did not intend to mislead Archie about the number of matters she had outstanding but was supplied her information by the Note Taking Unit of the Port of Spain Magistrates’ Court.

Ayers-Caesar said her part heard matters “could easily have been dealt with by another magistrate”.

“The process was that the magistrate would call the custodian of the records of the evidence, i.e. the Clerk of the Peace to re-tender the statements taken into evidence,” Ayers-Caesar stated in her affidavit.

She said she used this process in 2009 when she replaced Sherman Mc Nicolls as chief magistrate.

Ayers-Caesar, in her affidavit, said there are various reasons why preliminary enquiries are heard “piecemeal” over time.

“Magistrates hearing preliminary enquiries are generally not responsible for the delays which are caused by the preliminary enquiries being adjourned,” Ayers-Caesar stated in her affidavit.

“The principal reasons for adjournments of these preliminary enquiries include (a) the police vans are unable to take accused persons to court in instances where accused persons refuse to come to Court in an attempt to force an adjournment of their matter because they are aware that their attorneys-at-law are unavailable or that the prosecution witness is expected to give evidence on that day, (b) police witnesses are not available to give evidence at the hearing, (c) Attorneys-at-law for the accused are otherwise engaged and they request adjournments and (d) the large amount of matters on the list of the magistrate which makes it difficult for the preliminary enquiries to start or continue,” Ayers-Caesar stated in her affidavit.

“These reasons account for preliminary enquiries (including my preliminary enquiries) being heard piecemeal over a period of time,” Ayers-Caesar stated in her affidavit.

According to her affidavit Ayers-Caesar said 39 of her 52 part heard matters were preliminary enquiries and could have been dealt with by Section 23 (8) (c) of the Indictable Offences (Preliminary Enquiry) Act Chapter 12:01.

“It was therefore open to the Chief Justice to provide for my 39 preliminary enquiries to be dealt with by another magistrate,” Ayers-Caesar stated in her affidavit.

 In observance of today’s 27th anniversary of the 1990 attempted coup, Jamaat-al-Muslimeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr, along with his members will fast from dawn to dusk for T&T citizens who live below the poverty line.

The fast which will be the first since the insurrection, will begin at 4.30 am and ends at sunset.

At 1.30 pm street dwellers at Tamarind and Woodford Squares, Port-of-Spain, would also be fed hot meals.

The members will also supply boxed lunches to people who reside in cardboard houses in the East Dry River.

“Tomorrow (today) we are going to fast and pray for people who are poor and in need,” Bakr said in a telephone interview yesterday.

In the past, the Jamaat held a dinner in memory of the insurrection, but Bakr opted to break this tradition to stand in defence of the underprivileged.

Bakr said he was surprised that poverty was not raised in last Tuesday’s meeting with Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

“No where on the agenda this was mentioned.”

He said this should have been a priority by the two leaders since thousands of citizens were managing their households with $1,000 a month or less.

“Instead they choose to talk about campaign financing and Tobago self-government. The most urgent need that is before people in Trinidad now is this. This is a crisis situation.”

Bakr said Trinidad was becoming an uncivilised society with the savage and senseless slaying of women who are supposed to be nurturers and child bearers.

“Even in the worst case scenario we never used to kill women. Because I dare defend women...look at the amount of problem I get for doing that. I get framed for murder, guns, ammunition, treason...call any amount of thing, I get it. What happen to all those cases? Where them?”

In the Quran, Bakr said men are supposed to be the maintainers, providers and protectors of women, but were now at the mercy of rapists and killers.

“Men could kill men because it always have war. But when men could kill women and slash their throats and rape a 60, 70 or 80 year-old woman, nah!. These days I feeling a little defiant...I feel I should come back out again. But let them stew a little more in the pot. If they continue with the killing of the women, I will come out.”

Asked what he meant by come out, Bakr replied: “I could stop that.”

He said there was too much barbarism and savagery taking place in the country. Bakr said neither Rowley nor Persad-Bissessar have been capable of solving crime. Former NAR minister John Humphrey, who was held hostage by Bakr and his insurrectionists when they stormed the Red House, said 27 years later nobody has figured out why the coup occurred because Bakr never gave evidence in the 2011 Commission of Enquiry.

“The only thing they asked for when we started to negotiate in the Red House was the resignation of Robinson,” Humphrey said. In the enquiry it was reported that 24 people died as a result of the insurgency.

The father and son who were slain in Laventille on Tuesday were killed over ongoing gang war between Rasta City and Muslim, both police and relatives of the men say.

Retired public servant, Fitzroy Daniel, 65, and his son Jabari, 25, were attacked around noon on Tuesday after they went to assist Jabari’s brother Avalon, who had been involved in an accident. Both men were taken to the Port- of- Spain General Hospital where the father was pronounced dead on arrival. His son died hours later while being treated. Both men, of Boxhill Trace, Laventille, were killed at Pump Trace, Picton Road, Laventille in an area called Dan Kelly.

Yesterday, officers attached to the Port-of-Spain Division said the only motive they could conceive was that the men were killed for being in “enemy territory”. Police said three men surrounded the red Nissan Wingroad the father and son were in and without warning opened fire. Jabari attempted to flee the gunmen but was chased and shot. The killers then ran away.

Both father and son, who relatives said were very close, had each been shot three times according to their autopsies done by pathologist Dr Valery Alexandrov. Alexandrov said Fitzroy was shot once to the back of the head with the bullet travelling between the scalp and the skull, missing the brain but damaging the skull causing fragments to puncture the brain. He was also shot in the right side of neck and the right armpit. His son was shot in the left palm as he tried to shield himself from bullets.

Speaking with the media at the Forensic Science Centre, St James, Avalon Daniel, said he was at hospital when his brother and father were brought in. He said he was involved in an accident and called his brother, who had given him the car to assist. He added that he was taken to the hospital by a relative and while there he got a call saying his brother and father had been shot but he dismissed the call as a bad rumour.

“I see my father dead and doctors trying to save Jabari’s life. And I here wondering why they do this. It’s not even like they in the wrong place because they grow up there and they accustomed living there. And my brother isn’t any bad boy. He isn’t any criminal. He’s nothing like that. He’s a normal man. He love cars, music and women. He love gold and thing too. I always thought if anything, somebody would have killed my brother for, was a woman because he had the thing all the woman like,” Daniel said.

Daniel denied that the killing of his father and brother was linked to the accident. He added that he will now have to move out of the area where the killings happened because he is fearful that he might be next.

“I can’t even explain what going through my mind right now. The men who do it is men who know me good and know that is my brother. If they can kill my brother who is me? I was going in the same red car, but it was my aunt who put me in another car and take me down to the hospital. That murder did not stem from the accident, is Rasta City and Muslim. Where my brother living, they consider that area as Rasta City and where I living is Muslim. But my father born and grow up in Dan Kelly and move over to Boxhill and he and my brother always there (in Dan Kelly), so I don’t know what really cause that yesterday (Tuesday)” Daniel said.

A female relative of the men, who did not and to be named, said she found the entire thing as sad.

CLF shareholders have decided to appeal the decision of the Court of Appeal to appoint provisional liquidators for the company.

The decision was announced yesterday by Carlton Reis, spokesman for CLF majority shareholder Lawrence Duprey, hours after the appeal court reversed the decision of the High Court Judge Kevin Ramcharan.

Reis said: “We had made up our mind to go to the Privy Council from the beginning because we know it is the Government we are fighting and it would be a tough battle.”

He maintained the shareholders were resisting the moves to wind up the company as it would have a devastating impact on the company and the country’s economy.

“There is too much at stake. We don’t know why the Government keeps pushing this. They should sit down and talk. We have spoken to investors outside the country who want to come in and pay the debt,” Reis said.

He claimed he had recently travelled to the United States in an effort to solicit US$3 billion from foreign investors, which could be used to clear the $15 billion debt owed to Government for its bailout of its subsidiary Clico in 2009.

However, he claimed the investors still had to do due diligence checks into the company before releasing the funds.

Asked for more information on the interested investors, Reis said they were from several countries, including the US and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

“Mr Duprey used to travel around the world for business and there are a lot of people who are willing to help us,” he claimed.

While he said the shareholders would continue to work on the investors, he claimed Government appeared intent on liquidating the company even if the shareholders were willing to repay the debt.

“They (the Government) have been there for eight years and they are feasting on the company. If you look at the fees they were paying their directors and chairman, even in our glory days they were not paid so much,” Reis said.

Reis and Kirk Carpenter were the two men proposed by shareholders to be added to the company’s board in their bid to retake control of the company from the Government.

The shareholders were expected to vote on the issue during a meeting on Tuesday afternoon, but later postponed the move during the hearing before the Court of Appeal. The move by the shareholders to retake control of the company was one of the grounds raised by the Government for winding up the company.

A Princes Town man was sentenced to four years and eight months in jail for the buggery of his four-year-old cousin in 2006. When he is released from prison he will undergo counselling for three years and programmes will be put in place to treat him.

Sitting in the San Fernando High Court yesterday, Justice Althea Alexis Windsor sentenced the man to two years and eight months on the charge of grievous sexual assault and one year each on two charges of buggery. He will serve a total of one year and six months in jail.

The accused was 15-years-old when the two incidents occurred in 2005 and 2006.

The grievous sexual assault and one count of buggery occurred sometime between April 2005 and April 2006. A second count of buggery occurred sometime in 2006.

The man pleaded guilty to both charges in the San Fernando High Court on May 29. He was represented by attorney Ainsley Lucky while State attorneys Sabrina Dougdeen-Jalgal and Sarah De Silva prosecuted. 

Some elderly residents of Woodbrook, who were issued with $500 tickets for littering on Thursday have been told that the only two options available to them were to pay it or contest it.

That was the advice given by public health inspector in the Port-of-Spain City Corporation, Mitra Sooklal, who was invited to a meeting between the upset residents and mayor Joel Martinez at City Hall, Port-of-Spain.

The issue was raised during yesterday’s statutory meeting and Martinez invited the residents to meet with him after it ended.

The residents said they were issued with the tickets while the garbage was placed in sealed bags. They claim the garbage truck was also in the process of picking up the garbage when they were issued the tickets.

But Sooklal said the tickets could have been issued for tree cuttings placed in front the residents’ homes. He said the entire process is being reviewed.

One of the residents, Kingsley Hinkson, 70, said they were being terrorised by the litter wardens.

“They were terrorising the public in Woodbrook,” he added during the conversation with the mayor and other councillors present.

Another resident, Jocelyn Sealy, said the pensioners were not being treated the way they should be treated. She said the way a country treats its elderly was reflective of the country itself.

Another resident, Betty Bedeau-Mc Shine, said she was fed up and the residents would not be paying the tickets.

She said the litter wardens should go to Ariapita Avenue to do their work. She said on weekends she wakes up to endless garbage bottles and doubles in front of her house and along other nearby streets.

“We are just fed up and now you are telling these senior citizens to contest this, you all deal with it, we are not going to be paying this. You all deal with it,” she added.

But Sooklal said nobody was seeking to terrorise the Woodbrook residents. He asked them to comply with the garbage collection requirements. He said the matter was being reviewed.

During the statutory meeting earlier, Martinez gave more details about the planned renaming of Queen Street, Port -of- Spain in honour of T&T’s first Miss Universe Janelle Penny Commissiong, whom he said has agreed to the proposal. The mayor said trees are to be planted and security cameras installed along the street in the coming weeks. He said the street will be maintained in a way befitting the queen.

He also commented on damage done to Nelson Mandela Park, St Clair by those who are putting up an amusement park there. Mayor Martinez said the damage was unfortunate but work had already begun to restore the park to a state of normalcy.