Richard?Lord

Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley says Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar's re­moval of Anand Ram­lo­gan as at­tor­ney gen­er­al was an act to for­malise his pub­lic re­jec­tion.He was speak­ing dur­ing a news con­fer­ence at his Charles Street, Port-of-Spain, of­fice yes­ter­day.Ram­lo­gan was among four min­is­ters who were re­moved from the Cab­i­net. Sen­ate Pres­i­dent Tim­o­thy Hamel-Smith was al­so sacked with­out ex­pla­na­tion.

Mon­day's cab­i­net reshuf­fle was the fourth by Per­sad-Bisses­sar since as­sum­ing of­fice in 2010.Row­ley said Per­sad-Bisses­sar, in her ad­dress to the na­tion, went out of her way to dis­tract the pop­u­la­tion from the is­sue at hand, adding that if she had the au­thor­i­ty she would have at­tempt­ed to re­move Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty Di­rec­tor David West from of­fice.

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Row­ley said since Ram­lo­gan's ap­point­ment in 2010, Per­sad-Bisses­sar had pro­tect­ed him and giv­en him un­wa­ver­ing sup­port.Row­ley said that was done al­though Ram­lo­gan "con­tin­ued on a dai­ly, week­ly, month­ly and year­ly ba­sis to em­bar­rass the pop­u­la­tion, dis­re­spect his of­fice and put the Gov­ern­ment and the pub­lic in­ter­ests at risk."

Ram­lo­gan is be­ing in­ves­ti­gat­ed by the po­lice in re­sponse to a com­plaint made by West that he of­fered him the post of PCA di­rec­tor in ex­change for his with­draw­ing a wit­ness state­ment in a defama­tion mat­ter Ram­lo­gan filed against Row­ley.Gary Grif­fith was al­so re­moved from the Cab­i­net as the na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty min­is­ter, for fail­ing to re­port to the PM that Ram­lo­gan al­leged­ly asked him to get West to with­draw the wit­ness state­ment.

Row­ley said Ram­lo­gan was fac­ing a crim­i­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tion for which, if charged and found guilty, he could face a 20-year jail term."That was just too much for the pop­u­la­tion to take," Row­ley added."It was the gen­er­al sen­ti­ment in T&T that enough was enough of Anand Ram­lo­gan," Row­ley added.Row­ley said the PM raised "red her­rings to dis­tract" from the stark de­vel­op­ment of her at­tor­ney gen­er­al be­ing in­ves­ti­gat­ed for a crim­i­nal of­fence.

Row­ley said the PM made no men­tion of that calami­ty in her ad­dress.He said it re­mained un­clear as to whether Ram­lo­gan re­signed or was fired as the PM did not in­di­cate.He said Per­sad-Bisses­sar was the on­ly prime min­is­ter who boast­ed about the num­ber of min­is­ters she had re­moved af­ter ap­point­ing them.

No prob­lem with West

Row­ley said it was an ab­sur­di­ty for the PM to raise new is­sues con­cern­ing West.In re­sponse to Per­sad-Bisses­sar's claim that he, Row­ley, should have ad­vised her that West was a wit­ness in a defama­tion mat­ter be­tween Ram­lo­gan and him­self, Row­ley said he was not an ad­vis­er to the PM and Ram­lo­gan was ful­ly aware of the de­vel­op­ment. He added Ram­lo­gan, as at­tor­ney gen­er­al, was the of­fi­cial ad­vis­er to the Cab­i­net.

Row­ley said he main­tained his po­si­tion that West was the most suit­able per­son to head the PCA."The suit­abil­i­ty of David West to be head of the PCA has noth­ing to do with him be­ing a wit­ness," Row­ley added.

What about Vas­ant

Row­ley is al­so ask­ing why no ac­tion was tak­en against Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Min­is­ter Vas­ant Bharath, who, he said "is un­der a sim­i­lar al­le­ga­tion for the same crime."He ques­tioned whether the na­tion would have "to wait un­til a state­ment is giv­en to the po­lice about the Min­is­ter of Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and oth­ers be­fore she then takes them on board."He said the head­line was "not David West, not Kei­th Row­ley, the head­line is an at­tor­ney gen­er­al who has done un­til he has over-done."