As the op­po­si­tion Peo­ples Na­tion­al Move­ment ac­cus­es the gov­ern­ing Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress of a dirty tricks cam­paign in­volv­ing for­mer Ex­press jour­nal­ist Ani­ka Gumbs, di­rect­ed at Op­po­si­tion Leader Kei­th Row­ley, the UNC on Sat­ur­day moved swift­ly to dis­tance it­self from in­volve­ment in the af­fair.

UNC cam­paign man­ag­er Rod­ney Charles de­nied that Gumbs' rev­e­la­tions were part of their "Say No to Row­ley" cam­paign. Re­porters Sat­ur­day cor­nered him at the con­struc­tion site for the St Joseph Po­lice Sta­tion on the East­ern Main Road.

"Let me em­phat­i­cal­ly say that has noth­ing to with our cam­paign" Charles said.

"I am a per­son of in­tegri­ty. This cam­paign is about a choice be­tween two lead­ers... one with a plan and one with­out a plan."

"If he has prob­lems with Ms Gumbs let him take le­gal ac­tion or take it to the po­lice. We will not be­come in­volved in that, it is be­low us and that is not some­thing which we will ever think of do­ing."

Re­spond­ing to a claim from the Row­ley le­gal team that it had proof that peo­ple were be­ing ap­proached by the UNC to make state­ments against Row­ley, Charles said it was an un­proven al­le­ga­tion, and asked whether that was an­oth­er Email-gate where the PNM pre­sent­ed un­cor­rob­o­rat­ed in­for­ma­tion to par­lia­ment.

Mean­while Hous­ing Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal called on the Me­dia As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (MATT) to launch a full-scale in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to al­le­ga­tions raised by the in­ves­tiga­tive jour­nal­ist.

Mooni­lal de­scribed Gumbs' rev­e­la­tions as "shock­ing and grave."

He urged Matt to probe the com­plaint to de­ter­mine if there was any mis­con­duct on Row­ley's part.

Jour­nal­ists ques­tioned him about the is­sue at an HDC keys dis­tri­b­u­tion cer­e­mo­ny in Port-of-Spain.

"The Leader of Op­po­si­tion may al­so be very ea­ger to ex­plain him­self as well be­cause he has ad­mit­ted in the press this morn­ing that it was his habit to in­vite re­porters to his pri­vate res­i­dence to share sto­ries or give in­for­ma­tion", Mooni­lal said.

"He may want to ex­plain him­self as to whether that is his modus operan­di of en­ter­tain­ing and invit­ing re­porters to his pri­vate res­i­dence, which I be­lieve is a se­ri­ous mat­ter as well."