It took 59-year-old farmer Wilfred Edwards five hours to walk from the D’Abadie home of Highway Re-Route Movement (HRM) leader Dr Wayne Kublalsingh to the Office of the Prime Minister in St Clair to deliver two letters yesterday. The walk coincided with International Anti-Corruption Day yesterday. Edwards, who said he was the industrial relations consultant for the Point Fortin/Guapo/La Brea Farmers’ Association, began the gruelling journey along the Eastern Main Road just after 6 am.
In spite of the heat, Edwards said he never felt like giving up, as he had mentally and physically prepared himself. “It wasn’t easy. It was hard and it was gruelling but I prepared myself and I made it.” Edwards said the walk was not a relay walk, as originally planned, with other members taking part at various points, but added, “When I reached the lighthouse in Port-of-Spain, a HRM supporter met me and then we walked to the Office of the Prime Minister. We were greeted by a messenger who took the letters.”
On his immediate plans, he said he was resting, as his back and calves were hurting. Contacted yesterday, Kublalsingh lauded Edwards for his effort and his unwavering support for the HRM’s cause. He said his friendship with Edwards spanned several years as they had a history of activism together, including stopping plans under former prime minister Patrick Manning to build aluminium smelters in Chatham and La Brea.
Kublalsingh yesterday marked 84 days of his second hunger strike in protest against the Debe to Mon Desir section of the highway.
What the letters say
The two letters were titled, “Response by the Highway Reroute Movement on Nidco’s comments on the Armstrong Report” and a “Pattern of Abuse” which outlines the HRM’s allegations of mistreatment of its members by the State. For years, the HRM has fought the State’s decision to construct a highway between Debe and Mon Desir, as part of the highway mega project, but the group has maintained its support for the main artery into Point Fortin.
The HRM claimed the Government embarked on a four-year campaign to escalate and prolong the impasse relating to the Debe to Mon Desir segment of the Solomon Hochoy Highway extension to Point Fortin. The group also claimed that propaganda was used to vilify and deliberately distort its message.