?Con­gress of the Peo­ple (COP) leader Win­ston Dook­er­an has ac­cused par­ty "gate­keep­ers" Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning and Op­po­si­tion Leader Bas­deo Pan­day of "get­ting scared" of chal­lenges and com­ing to­geth­er on Tues­day to keep COP out of pol­i­tics.

Dook­er­an made the point on a COP plat­form in Curepe on Tues­day fol­low­ing the two lead­ers' meet­ing at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre ear­li­er that day. He called on Man­ning and Pan­day to "re­veal the se­cret agen­da" of their meet­ing. Dook­er­an said: "While we are talk­ing to you here about the voic­es of the fu­ture, at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre the voic­es of the past met. "But those voic­es are re­fus­ing to leave the de­par­ture lounge that has been pre­pared for them by the peo­ple of this coun­try and the COP, the voice of the fu­ture, must take charge over the voic­es of the past, which re­mains for the mean­while in the de­par­ture lounge."

Dook­er­an added: "I want to as­sure those voic­es of the past that in the de­par­ture lounge that we have set for them, we will treat them well and we will give them all the dig­ni­ty that must be af­ford­ed those who have served the peo­ple in the past, but the time has come and now they must go." Ques­tion­ing the Man­ning/Pan­day meet­ing, Dook­er­an said: "Are they work­ing in the in­ter­est of this na­tion and its fu­ture or are they work­ing as self-serv­ing agents to pro­tect their dwin­dling po­lit­i­cal sup­port? "I say, the me­dia agen­da was dif­fer­ent to the se­cret agen­da and if they want to have in­tegri­ty in the dis­charge of the of­fices they hold on be­half of the peo­ple, they must re­veal the se­cret agen­da of that meet­ing," he added.