Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal, who first raised the matter of teenagers photographed with high-powered weapons at the Camp Cumuto shooting range, is now asking whether another minister was present on the day Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi and his family visited the facility.
Moonilal yesterday told the T&T Guardian he had read the letter Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Brigadier Rodney Smart sent to Opposition Senator Wayne Sturge on the issue, and found it “convoluted and confused, and left more questions than answers.” He said given the “dramatic denial of retired CDS Major General (Kenrick) Maharaj,” he is convinced the matter is “far from dead and will not go away.”
The Defence Force has declared the matter closed and Al-Rawi has described it as a “dead story.” But Moonilal said Smart’s letter suggested “the biggest cover-up in the history of the armed forces”
“The central involvement of the Attorney General and possibly other Cabinet members sends a chill up the body politic,” he said.
He is now calling on Smart to say whether Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Stuart Young was at Camp Cumuto on October 31, 2015, the day Al-Rawi and his family visited the camp.
“Who invited Young and for what purpose?” he asked.
On Tuesday, Minister in the Ministry of National Security Dennis Moses told the Senate the T&T Defence Force board of inquiry report will be made public. Moonilal wants to know how soon this will happen, as given Maharaj’s claim that he did not authorise the visit and did not know about it, the Defence Force must clear the air.
Acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams has said although the army did its own inquiry into the matter, the police are also doing an investigation. Moonilal wants Williams to give the status of that probe.
For his part, Maharaj says he wants to clear his name and is challenging Smart’s claim that he was “acting on his own volition” when he authorised the visit by Al-Rawi and his family to Camp Cumuto and allowed the AG’s children to handle high-powered rifles
“As long as there is no correction of the error, I have to seek my interest,” said Maharaj, who has written to Smart demanding a retraction.
Smart is on pre-retirement leave and Captain Hayden Pritchard is the acting CDS.
“I intend to call Captain Pritchard if I don’t get a response. That will shape the next step for me but the matter is not yet closed,” Maharaj said.
Maharaj did not say whether he is considering legal options but has denied allegations of “collusion and collaboration with the UNC.” He said all he wanted was for the truth to be told.
