Sacked justice minister Herbert Volney is calling on Attorney General Anand Ramlogan to step down pending the outcome of investigations into a trail of e-mails sent to and from an address of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, other officials and himself on the Section 34 fiasco. Rowley produced copies of the e-mails during Monday’s debate on a motion of no confidence in the Government. Ramlogan told a news conference yesterday the e-mails were bogus.
But while Volney questioned whether Rowley was engaging in public mischief by presenting the e-mails, he said Ramlogan should do the right thing and step down in the interim. Volney was contributing to the debate in the House of Representatives yesterday. He said: “For there to be any fair investigation, the opportunity to investigate openly and transparently must be sanitised of persons who can influence the investigation itself and who can bear pressure upon persons who would likely come forward to give evidence.”
The St Joseph MP said he was shocked when he heard the contents of the e-mails but said one line in the said e-mail was true, the line which said the PM had not made up her mind about his future in the Cabinet at the end of the meeting she had with him. Volney was referring to the e-mail which said Persad-Bissessar had not as yet made up her mind about his future in the Cabinet.
He said up to 4.30 pm on the day he was fired, September 20, “the parting word the Prime Minister had given me was that ‘I have not yet made up my mind.’” Volney said former national security minister Jack Warner had to resign because the public perception was that there were unanswered questions about him. He said former PNM ministers Franklin Khan and Eric Williams had to go because of allegations against them.
Volney added: “The area of investigation must be sterile, sanitised of those parties.” He was not sure the Commissioner of Police (CoP) was independent enough to carry out this investigation as the CoP was acting in the position. Dealing with the Section 34 issue, Volney said a letter, dated February 22, 2012 from the permanent secretary (PS) in his ministry to the DPP, indicated the act should be proclaimed by the middle of the year.
He said the PS requested from the DPP the number of matters which Section 34 (3) would apply. Volney said a response was received from the DPP’s office on May 22, 2012, indicating that some 47 matters would be affected but no specific case was identified in the reply. “No one told the Minister of Justice there was a case to put brakes, to hold strain,” Volney added.
He said there was no intention to proclaim the law to benefit any particular individuals and it was intended to speed up the delivery of justice as it was unfair to have matters take years to be completed instead of months.