The Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­istry is in­ves­ti­gat­ing the cause of death of­former Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Mar­tin Joseph, whose body was re­cov­ered Jan­u­ary 5 from a beach in To­ba­go.

Ac­cord­ing to re­ports, Joseph, who was on va­ca­tion, left Sky­lark Vil­las around 7 am. Some time af­ter, he went swim­ming at Grange Bay with a friend, George Caruth of Hale­land Park, Mar­aval.

Joseph­got in­to dif­fi­cul­ty and Caruth was un­able to help him to safe­ty, re­ports said.

Of­fi­cers at the Old Grange Po­lice Sta­tion said they re­spond­ed to a call and went to the beach, where they re­trieved Joseph's body, with the help of a 17-year-old young man.

Joseph's body was brought to shore at about 8.50 am, ac­cord­ing to re­ports.

In a re­lease is­sued Jan­u­ary 5, the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­istry con­firmed that the body­was pos­i­tive­ly iden­ti­fied as Joseph, and said they were prob­ing his death.

Rough seas

The beach is known for large swells and is fre­quent­ed by surfers.T&T Me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal Of­fice has re­cent­ly been is­su­ing rough seas bul­letins­for the west coasts of Trinidad and To­ba­go. Sim­i­lar con­di­tions are ex­pect­ed to per­sist at least un­til Wednes­day, a Met Of­fice spokesper­son said on Jan­u­ary 5.

The T&T Coast Guard­got a call8.05 amon Jan­u­ary 5 that Joseph went miss­ing af­ter he went swim­ming at ap­prox­i­mate­ly7.40 am, the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty state­ment said. The Coast Guard base in To­ba­go was no­ti­fied and searched for Joseph at sea.

"It was dur­ing their search the body washed ashore near Grange Bay and was re­cov­ered by the Old Grange Po­lice," the re­lease said.

Con­do­lences pour in

Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Gary Grif­fith and the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty ex­tend con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly and friends of Joseph and the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM), the re­lease said.

Po­lit­i­cal leader of the PNM Dr Kei­thRow­ley hailed Joseph as a "stal­wart" and de­scribed him as the Deputy Cam­paign Manger of the 2015 gen­er­al elec­tions.

To­ba­go House ofAssem­bly Chief Sec­re­tary Orville Lon­don de­scribed Joseph as "a good friend, a good com­rade, a good col­league."

THA Sec­re­tary for Tourism and Trans­porta­tion Sec­re­tary­Tra­cy David­son Ce­les­tine de­scribed his death as "a sig­nif­i­cant loss for the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment."

THA Heath and So­cial Ser­vice Sec­re­tary Clau­dia Groome Duke de­scribed him as the"lifeblood of the or­gan­i­sa­tion."

THA Sec­re­tary of Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment and Cul­ture­Denise Tsoiafatt-An­gus de­scribed him as"a dear friend, a col­league and a key team play­er for the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment."

COP Chair­man Nicole Dy­er Grif­fith al­so ex­tend­ed­con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly and col­leagues of the dece­saed for­mer min­is­ter.

More in­fo

Ac­cord­ing to the T&T Par­lia­ment web­site, from 1995 to 2002, Mr. Joseph was the elect­ed Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for the St. Ann's East Con­stituen­cy.His ap­point­ment as a Cab­i­net Min­is­ter in the Trinidad and To­ba­go Gov­ern­ment be­gan in 2001 when he as­sumed the port­fo­lio of Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Util­i­ties and the En­vi­ron­ment. In Oc­to­ber 2002, Mr. Joseph was made a Gov­ern­ment Sen­a­tor and was giv­en the port­fo­lio of Min­is­ter of Hous­ing, an ap­point­ment he held un­til No­vem­ber 2003. Mr. Joseph was ap­point­ed Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty in No­vem­ber 2003.