Two days before he was sucked into a pipeline at Paria Fuel Trading Ltd, Rishi Nagassar discussed his death with his common-law wife.
Vanessa Kussie revealed this when she gave evidence before the Commission of Enquiry into the death of her husband and three of his co-workers.
“What I want to say, sir, is prior to what I am going to say now, my husband and I had this conversation before this tragedy had happened, two days before it had happened. I was like a detective asking him questions and when it came to reality, it was my nightmare,” Kussie said.
Kussie’s statement was among three made to the Commission from relatives on Monday.
Earlier in the day, Paria’s attorney, Senior Counsel Gilbert Peterson raised an objection to the statements being read into evidence, saying it would be prejudicial against the company.
The commission’s chairman, King’s Counsel Jerome Lynch eventually decided to allow the statements. None of the attorneys present were allowed to cross-examine any of the relatives.
Nagassar, Fyzal Kurban, Yusuf Henry and Kazım Ali Jr died after they were sucked into a 30-inch pipeline on February 25, 2022. A fifth man, Christopher Boodram, was also sucked into the pipeline but managed to crawl to safety and was eventually rescued from the top of the pipeline.
The five were employees of LMCS doing underwater maintenance works on Paria’s Berth 6 when the incident occurred.
Yesterday, Kussie said she was at home when she got the news that Nagassar was involved in an accident at Paria. She said she was told Nagassar, who she called “Ryan” had been sucked into a pipeline.
A short while later, she was being given condolences by a fisherman who knew her husband.
Her frantic attempts to reach Nagassar, the LMCS administrative office and any of Nagassar’s friends sent her into a spiral.
“I started to scream, I pounded the ground and I rushed to my son. I picked him up and I went to my prayer room and I started to pray,” Kussie recalled.
Several times during her testimony, she broke down in tears. Kussie kept touching a pendant with a photo of Nagassar holding their son, with the inscription “My dad, my hero,” as she tried to compose herself.
She said after days of being told little, on February 28, she was told Nagassar’s body was recovered.
But when she visited the Forensic Sciences Centre the next day to identify the body, the procedure did not go as planned.
“The body I viewed was swollen very badly and covered in oil. I could not recognise the body, it was eventually determined that the body was Kazim Ali Junior and not Ryan based on the clothing,” Kussie said.
On March 3, Nagassar’s body was recovered from the pipeline and Kussie was able to identify it.
Kussie said Nagassar was the family’s breadwinner.
As she wrapped up her statement, revealed the hardships she has been facing since Nagassar died.
“This has been a great loss to my family. My second son Nigel is not speaking with anyone, he just shakes and nods his head. My other son, Nicholai, he is with me all the time. They are not the same children,” Kussie said.
Jamie Manodath-Ali, the wife of Kazim Ali Jr, also read from a prepared statement.
When she introduced herself, Manodath-Ali immediately hit out at Paria.
“I am the wife of Kazim Jeremiah Ali Jr, who on the 25th of February, 2022, with three others, survived an accident on a project at Berth 6, Pointe-a-Pierre, only to be abandoned to die some 40 hours later in a pipeline in Paria Fuel Trading Company’s premises, on Paria’s instructions,” Manodath-Ali said.
She said she viewed Paria’s decision to move from rescue to recovery the next day as “cruel and premature.”
Ali Jr’s mother, Dr Catherine Ali also read from a prepared statement.
She labelled Paria as unqualified to deal with the incident.
“Paria’s process lacked justice and integrity. There was no leadership, preparedness or morality in Paria’s decisions that killed four LMCS men who waited excruciatingly in the pipe until they could breathe no more,” Ali said.
Celisha Kurban’s statement was read to the Commission by her attorney, Prakash Ramadhar.
