TOP’s Jack: London sounds like Hochoy

Statements by Chief Secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly Orville London at last Sunday’s PNM convention sounded a lot like former DAC leader Hochoy Charles, according to Tobago’s Organisation of the People (TOP) leader Ashworth Jack. He took issue yesterday with London’s statements about TOP’s Delmon Baker and a scholarship funded by THA which Baker obtained.

Jack said it sounded a lot like “when Hochoy said at one time that he sent PNM’s Rennie ‘Stretch’ Dumas to school.” He added: “I wonder whose playbook London is using since he sounds a lot like Hochoy in recent weeks. “He had sounded so confident before, so why did he tell PNM’s convention the next few months will be challenging?”  he asked.

After the THA was dissolved last week, Jack said the party was gearing for a mid-January election. The poll is due by January 25. He said TOP had been campaigning and holding meetings every weekend during the last month. He said it would not matter to the party much if political forces, such as Charles, Debra Moore-Miggins and others, formed an alliance with the PNM to fight the elections.

He said the big issues were expected to be autonomy for Tobago and the non-completion and cost overruns of projects done by the THA, plus the Milshirv complex issue. Jack said the library in Tobago started at $18 million and now cost $106 million and the cultural complex started at $74 million and now cost $300 million.

Meanwhile, the Tobago PNM brings the upcoming THA election campaign to Trinidad on November 18 with a “Tobago Day” at PNM’s Balisier House, Port-of-Spain, PNM general secretary Ashton Ford said yesterday. The event will feature the food and culture of Tobago as well as political speeches as the THA and Tobago PNMites “will send a powerful message to Trinidadians” on PNM’s strength in Tobago, Ford added.