Warner: Three Jamaat camps in Tobago

National Security Minister Jack Warner has said he was advised there are three camps with Jamaat al Muslimeen members in Tobago. Warner made the charge when he addressed a large crowd of Tobago Organisation of the People (TOP) supporters in Moriah, Tobago on Thursday night.

His allegation follows a claim by TOP leader Ashworth Jack that 20 thugs from a religious sect were driving around Tobago and intimidating potential voters. The national security minister, who was flown into the island by helicopter around 6 pm on Thursday evening, was given a resounding welcome by villagers when he arrived in Moriah  with a large security detail around 9.40 pm.

“This is a fantastic crowd, the biggest I’ve seen in Tobago,” he said. Warner began his address by establishing his Tobago ties. “Moriah, I’m back home. That shop was my Uncle Leonard shop,” he said, pointing to an old building nearby. He said on January 24, three days after the THA election, TOP leader Ashworth Jack would be sworn in, and urged supporters to assist in the campaign.

“Go in every nook and cranny. Don’t count no egg in fowl bumsee,” he said. At 10.15 pm, Warner paused as the crowd erupted into another uproar for the arrival of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar. She had also arrived by helicopter at the ANR Robinson Airport, right after Warner.

Moriah women converged around her and danced with her to the platform to the tune She’s Royal. “Where Orville? Let him come and see for himself,” an elated Warner said. “There’s a new dawn in Tobago, a new era has come.” Warner spent most of his short address launching an attack on Orville London who is the incumbent chief secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly.

“If ever there was a disaster on the island, Orville is it,” Warner said. “Orville, people tell me you build a house in Sou Sou Lands and renting it to a Chinee. They tell me you have a house in Calder Hall and one in Delpeche. “Orville, they tell me you have shares in a gas station. “Since 2008, the THA has given no financial statement to the Auditor General,” Warner told villagers in what was reportedly a TOP stronghold.

Persad-Bissessar, addressed the crowd later and standing on the edge of the stage touched their outstretched hands. “Anil (Sports Minister Anil Roberts) said some people don’t want a Calcutta ship in Tobago. But he said his mother is from Calcutta and his father is from Tobago,” she said.

Roberts, who came to Tobago along with close to a dozen government ministers to assist in the TOP’s campaign in the run-up to Monday’s THA election, also addressed the crowd. The PM supported Warner’s expectation that Jack would be sworn in as THA Chief Secretary on January 24.

She said the number 24 was special to her since she was sworn in as UNC leader on January 24, 2010 and the People’s Partnership won the last general election on May 24, 2010. “God works in mysterious ways. On January 24, Jack will be sworn in as chief secretary,” she said. The PM was expected to continue her hectic round of activities yesterday at the launch of  the Tobago Campus of UTT in Scarborough and a trade school.

Warner flew back to Trinidad yesterday morning and was expected to return for a TOP meeting in Tambrin Square last night. He will reportedly be in Tobago until Tuesday.