“Patently, categorically, unambiguously - no!”
That was Foreign Affairs Minister Dennis Moses’s forceful reply yesterday in Parliament when he was asked by UNC MP Bhoe Tewarie if he had been trying to avoid Customs when he entered Piarco Airport on September 20 and reportedly attempted to exit via the duty-free area.
Moses was quizzed about the situation following a press release on the issue by UNC activist Devant Maharaj on Monday. Maharaj had enclosed a copy of a letter from the Airport Authority of T&T suspending security guard Kelvon Alexander for his alleged behaviour in halting the minister.
CCTC footage was cited and Alexander was reprimanded. He was suspended without pay for two weeks. Maharaj argued that suspension of an AATT security officer can seriously undermine National Security as well as affect AATT officers’ morale.
Yesterday, Moses was probed by the Opposition on the issue in the brief question-time segment of the parliamentary agenda. Moses said no incident occurred between him and the security guard.
He said he’d returned home on September 20 as part of a national delegation, returning from Guyana. The team had signed a Memorandum of Understanding there.
On arrival, Moses said, “As is the normal custom the protocol officer at hand would have extended courtesies to delegation members including processing them through Immigration.
He said they were subsequently guided through the airport “as is usual, and through Customs, all the while following the protocol officer who had the documents and did the processing.”
Moses said they were guided to the gate as normal. He said the format forms “an integral part of courtesies extended to us.”
He said it was no different and had occurred much more in his travels as recently as last month in airport terminals in other areas. Denying he’d tried to avoid any authorities, Moses said he was merely guided protocol-wise and followed as he would have habitually done.
On another Opposition query, Works Minister Rohan Sinanan said on Wednesday the captain of the Galleons Passage changed course on the Tobago run and turned back due to rough seas.
He said waves were 3.5 metres high when they are normally 1.5 metres high. As a result of the rough weather, two of the vessel’s ceiling panels became dislodged and fell off. They were fixed and the vessel sailed on Thursday.