The Tobago Organisation of the People (TOP) has paid tribute to former party chairman and co-founder, Lionel Coker, whose funeral is scheduled for today at the Calvary Road Deliverance Tabernacle, Bon Accord, from 1 pm.
Coker's body was discovered on April 23 on a bed at his sister's Shirvan Road home. He died of a heart attack.
Although Coker left the TOP in 2013 and later joined the Independent Liberal Party (ILP), approximately 20 supporters celebrated his life and the contributions he made to Tobago and the TOP during a meeting on Saturday at the party's uptown Scarborough headquarters.
TOP leader Ashworth Jack, who described Coker as a his friend, shared a few fond moments he experienced with him. He then opened the floor for a few tributes from members.
The party's Education and Training Officer, Oral Fraser, said death was something no one can ever be prepared for.
"I am still in shock. Lionel Coker, who I remember was always smiling, I have never seen him vex. No matter what you say to Coker, he would just laugh, skin his teeth, never seen him vex ever...Mr. Coker was there very early as one of the founding members of this party and if is one gift I think he had was the gift of motivating and mobilising, that came so natural for him and I admired him for that," Fraser said.
Defeated THA election candidate Sherry-Ann Rollocks-Hackett said the memory of Coker as a great leader would always remain. She described him as a "corruption buster" known for fearlessly exposing abuse of political power.
She noted that his death had brought many people together.
She also condemned the T&T Mirror for its use of a nude photo of Coker's body on their front page.
"What are we saying to young people of Trinidad and Tobago, what message are you sending to them. We speak of the fact that some of them are callous, have no respect for life but when we do something like that, what are we encouraging? That for me was the lowest of lows," she said.