Prove it, Prime Minister!
By Gail Alexander (Guardian).That’s the challenge thrown out to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday by embattled Independent Liberal Party (ILP) leader Jack Warner, who also accused acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams of not speaking the truth on the alleged ganja which Warner claims was discovered on the PM’s property on April 12, 2013.
Warner, who claimed he had spoken to the PM on it at the time while she was in the US, says she must prove she was in T&T and must also prove there was no “weed” in her house.
“...And she must also tell T&T about her closeness to (sacked minister) Anil Roberts and the reason for that,” he added at a Centre of Excellence, Macoya, media briefing yesterday.
He said the PM, Williams and retired deputy commissioner of police Mervyn Richardson were “lying on the matter” and Williams was trying to “cover up for Kamla...”
“Why?” Warner added, calling for Williams to “do his job, go to the (police) station (in question) and take the (station) diary.
“If the deputy commissioner of police doesn’t speak the truth, who will? And he says it’s all about politics,” he said, also accusing Richardson of “doing a good job covering up.”
Warner called the briefing to talk about fall-out following his weekend allegation that four ounces of ganja were allegedly found on a ledge outside a window on the PM’s Palmiste property in 2013.
He claimed Richardson had told him that on April 12, 2013, when it was allegedly found. He was national security minister at the time.
He claimed he called the People’s Partnership’s Dr Roodal Moonilal on it and he suggested Warner speak to the PM, who was in the US.
Warner claimed he spoke to Persad-Bissessar and she asked if she should return home and resign and he prevailed on her not to, while himself Moonilal and Richardson “buried” the matter.
Yesterday, Warner said the PM’s adviser in 2013, Gary Griffith, wasn’t involved in the cover-up but was later told of it. He, however, revealed tapes of conversations on the issue he had with Griffith and who also “bad talked” the PM.
Warner said he always had a “gut feeling” the day would come when he would have to “show T&T who the Prime Minister is, who Richardson is and who Jack Warner is,” so he kept tapes for a day like that.
Warner said he was talking of the alleged ganja issue now since it was time for re-election and Persad-Bissessar “is unfit to be re-elected... this is the tip of the iceberg, I ent start yet!”
He said he didn’t say anything until now since he had been hoping for some kind of investigation to close the chapter and since there was none, he did so.
He also added there was a point in time when he would have given his life for the PM, since he thought she was a victim of the cabal — “Ramlogan, Suruj, Moonilal, Sharma” — and had not replied to PP attacks.
But he said when the US issued an arrest warrant for him and “my Prime Minister tell the AG to sign it and ‘go for him, I said that can’t be the cabal. So my eyes opened and this ‘Teflon’ Prime Minister had to be exposed.”
Warner said he was compelled to speak yesterday because Griffith had called him last Sunday on the ganja story but since then everything had been done to discredit him, including the acting CoP’s statement on the matter.
He also said he was speaking out since Express reporter Denyse Renne had been “demonised”, including by colleagues in the same paper, he claimed, for writing last weekend’s story.
Warner detailed how he called Renne on his way home after he left the Parliament last Friday (when elections were announced).
He said she said she was in Moruga but he told her to wait for him in San Juan, since he had something to give her. He said he met her there later and gave her a June 6, 2015, affidavit he had done by Justice of the Peace Anthony Soulette on the matter.
In defending Renne and saying she was treated unfairly, Warner challenged yesterday’s Express report by Anna Ramdass which stated that according to the T&T Gazette, the appointment of MP Winston Dookeran, who acted for the PM when she went to the US in April 2013, was effective April 14. He claimed the instrument of appointment was issued April 12.
The Chaguanas MP detailed futile efforts he made in seeking records from the VIP Lounge, Foreign Affairs and NY Consulate to ascertain the PM’s location during the period. He said Parliament staff said she was not in Parliament on April 12, 2013.
He added: “It’s not my burden to prove the PM was out of T&T but she has to prove she was in T&T and up to now she hasn’t proved this.”
Warner claimed Richardson showed him a picture on his phone of the alleged ganja evidence. He said it would be easy for TSTT to check Richardson’s phone records on this.
He said he was told the officer in the station in question took a picture but would not name the officer or station and urged the media to follow it up.
He also took issue with a US judge who urged people to support the PM.
Warner said he would be playing the tapes he had compiled at all ILP meetings — in South tomorrow — and will be holding three public meetings weekly.
He said if his revelations had caused so much “confusion and back-biting... wait until the others come out.” He claimed sentry diaries at the Diplomatic Centre residence were also changed.
Warner, who refused to answer football issue queries, said he intended to have his day in court on that and answer there. He denied any Panama trip with a minister in 2010.
Last night there was no statement from the Prime Minister’s office on Warner’s claims. Also contacted by the media last night, Moonilal said he preferred not to comment.
Griffith taped discussing issueChaguanas MP Jack Warner said yesterday that after “flawed” reports in the Express and from the acting CoP, he had to use the tapes he allegedly recorded with Griffith to prove his case.
In the first the voice recording, which Griffith yesterday confirmed was his, he said the PM comes to Parliament and stays in her officer there and goes home and that her weekends are from Friday night to Wednesday, so when the PP came to ask for another five years, people had to ask if they wanted a five-day weekend. The voice is also heard telling Warner they both have enough “ammo” on the PP.
In another tape, which Warner claimed was made last weekend, Griffith insisted he was not involved in a cover-up on the weed issue and had not spoken to the PM.
He said the police would have to speak on the issue and the onus was on them — Richardson and Garth Gould — of the Special Branch, to “come clean and admit they” found something.”
Griffith is also heard telling Warner he would not deny that he knew about the issue but could not say it was marijuana.
In a third tape, both continue to debate the matter, with Griffith saying he could not come forward on the matter and Warner is heard asking if he should call reporter Renne and tell her to call Griffith.
In another tape made yesterday morning, Griffith is heard asking Warner if he had heard the acting Cop’s statement on the issue and deciding what to say, with Warner saying: All you have to do Gary is tell the truth.”
Warner also revealed text messages between himself and Griffith.
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Jack Warner's Press Conference (Audio)