Shar­lene Ram­per­sad

The morals and val­ues that were in­stilled in the cit­i­zens of T&T as chil­dren are fail­ing them and the 230 mur­ders in on­ly 197 days of this year is ev­i­dence of this fail­ure.So said min­is­ter Carl Ram­lal, who was of­fi­ci­at­ing at the fu­ner­al of mur­dered busi­ness­woman Ne­sha Es­pinoza, at Guide's Fu­ner­al Home, Cof­fee Street, San Fer­nan­do, yes­ter­day.Es­pinoza, 44, was shot dur­ing a rob­bery in Point Lisas on Ju­ly 11, af­ter her killers had al­ready grabbed her $50,000 pay­roll last Fri­day at Rivulet Road, Cou­va.

Ram­lal called on mourn­ers to take a stand against hard-heart­ed peo­ple and en­gage them in a spir­i­tu­al bat­tle."As a peo­ple we can­not lose hope, we have to stand up against hard-heart­ed peo­ple like the ones who did this. We need to get on our knees and cry out for what they are do­ing to this na­tion, en­gage them in a spir­i­tu­al bat­tle for our land."Ram­lal ad­mon­ished those gath­ered to live spir­i­tu­al lives and not to be im­i­tat­ed and fear­ful."Let the dev­il and his imps know they have no place in our land, we are tak­ing back T&T."

In his eu­lo­gy, Es­pinoza's broth­er-in-law, pas­tor Ki­wi Cal­loo de­scribed Es­pinoza as the glue that held her fam­i­ly to­geth­er."Ne­sha was very fam­i­ly-ori­ent­ed, there was no lim­it to what she would for her fam­i­ly," said Cal­loo. "She was the rock of her fam­i­ly and a most giv­ing woman."Cal­loo said she was al­so a fear­less per­son."There was noth­ing that could scare her. She loved a chal­lenge and would nev­er back down."