SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Cit­i­zens are ex­pect­ed to turn out in their num­bers for Pres­i­dent Paul-Mae Weekes’ first mil­i­tary pa­rade in com­mem­o­ra­tion of the coun­try’s 56th an­niver­sary of In­de­pen­dence at the Grand Stand, Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah on Fri­day.

The pa­rade will al­so be the first for Stu­art Young, as Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, and Gary Grif­fith, as Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice.

Yes­ter­day, cor­po­rate com­mu­ni­ca­tions man­ag­er of the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Mar­cia Hope, war­rant of­fi­cer Class Two of the T&T De­fence Force Kevin Al­lain and cor­po­rate com­mu­ni­ca­tions man­ag­er of the Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Min­istry Char­lene Stu­art met with the me­dia to dis­cuss cov­er­age of the hour-long pa­rade which will be Weekes’ first since her in­au­gu­ra­tion in March.

Hope made it clear that the use of drones by the pub­lic and me­dia was strict­ly pro­hib­it­ed, while they have put all sys­tems in place should the coun­try ex­pe­ri­ence an­oth­er earth­quake or af­ter­shock dur­ing the pa­rade which be­gins at 8 am.

Among those list­ed to at­tend are Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, his wife Sharon, Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie, mem­bers of the diplo­mat­ic corps, Gov­ern­ment min­is­ters, Op­po­si­tion mem­bers.

At this event, the pub­lic will see Grif­fith, wear­ing his kha­ki-coloured po­lice uni­form, for the first time.

Hope said they ex­pect a large pub­lic turnout for the cel­e­bra­tions see­ing this will be Weekes’ first pa­rade as the coun­try’s sixth and first fe­male Pres­i­dent.

Monique Sprott, flight lieu­tenant and pub­lic af­fairs of­fi­cer for the T&T De­fence Force, in a tele­phone in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia, said a na­tion­al In­de­pen­dence Day pan­el com­mit­tee will meet to­day to fi­nalise plans for the event.

“By to­mor­row all our plans for the pa­rade will be firmed up and fi­nalised,” Sprott said. De­tach­ments of the De­fence Force have been re­hears­ing their drills at the sa­van­nah since last week.

She said Young is ex­pect­ed to ar­rive in the sa­van­nah at 7.50 am fol­lowed by Archie, Row­ley and then Weekes who will re­ceive a pres­i­den­tial salute from pa­rade com­man­der Col Darn­ley Wyke.

The Chief of the De­fence Staff cap­tain Hay­den Pritchard will ac­com­pa­ny Weekes, who is al­so the Com­man­der in Chief of the Armed Forces, for the in­spec­tion of the pa­rade.

This would be fol­lowed by a march past of armed and un­armed forces com­pris­ing mem­bers of the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice, T&T De­fence Force, Cadet Force, the St John’s Am­bu­lance Brigade and Traf­fic War­dens.

Dur­ing the pa­rade, mem­bers of the pub­lic will al­so wit­ness the fly and dri­ve-bys, Sprott said.

The fly­by dis­play will be done by the T&T Air Guard.

Af­ter the march past, Sprott said Weekes will be ho­n­oured with a 21-gun salute, with the pa­rade tra­vers­ing along some streets in Port-of-Spain that will end at the Po­lice Bar­racks on Long Cir­cu­lar Road.

At 10 am, Sprott said Weekes will make a toast to the na­tion at the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my of the Per­form­ing Arts.