Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) leader David Abdulah says those who were negligent in the LMCS/Paria diving tragedy must be held to account.
Speaking at a virtual media conference yesterday following another session of the Commission of Enquiry into the deaths of four divers last week, Abdulah said, “They must pay!”
Recalled snippets of the heart-breaking evidence of sole survivor Christopher Boodram during the CoE, he said the diver’s deaths demonstrated the absolute callousness of Paria.
“They were never concerned about saving the lives of those four men, total and absolute callousness and lack of concern for human life demonstrated by those in charge of Paria and we now seeing people from Heritage were also involved.”
Fyzal Kurban, Karim Ali Jr, Rishi Nagassar and Yusuf Henry died in the February 25 incident at Paria Fuel’s offshore facility at Pointe-a-Pierre, after they became trapped in a pipeline after an accident while they were conducting repair works.
Claiming that those in charge were “twiddling their thumbs” for hours while the men were trapped in the pipeline, covered in oil and gasping for air, he charged, “I want to say this morning that those who were responsible for failing to make any proper effort of rescuing the divers and who stopped those who were prepared to engage in a rescue effort, those people must be held to account, they must pay, they cannot be working for tens of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars because it is a state-owned company, sitting comfortably, without even showing a hint of remorse.”
He added, “The entire management and board of those companies must be fired and held accountable and one would hope they can be held criminally liable for the deaths of the four divers.”
However, he said the root of the whole issue stemmed from the shutting down of Petrotrin, which led to the workers’ retrenchment and no proper checks and balances.
“They putting profit before people,” he lamented.
Abdulah also took issue with Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan’s statement that people should “prepare for the worst and hope for the best” as he commented on the flooding that had affected thousands of citizens across the country
“That statement by the Minister of Works and Transport is a clear indication of the absolute failure by this PNM Government to do anything proactive with respect to dealing with flooding,” Abdulah said.
He said the MSJ had suggested, as far back as eight years ago, the establishment of an independent national infrastructure fund not controlled by the government and funded by bonds.
“A special fund managed by an independent group of people, appointed by the President in a similar way as the Green Fund and Heritage and Stabilisation Fund are managed...” he said.
He said the MSJ has also suggested that the Green Fund, which has $8 billion, be used to build retention ponds to mitigate flooding. He said other ways of mitigating flooding include the proper implementation of hillside development and putting an end to illegal quarrying.