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Sunday, July 27, 2025

Padarath: Claims of Tobago birthday bash affecting travellers a ‘complete lie’

by

5 days ago
20250722
Public Utilities Minister and  Couva South MP Barry Padarath

Public Utilities Minister and Couva South MP Barry Padarath

Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath is rub­bish­ing so­cial me­dia claims that he held a birth­day bash in To­ba­go, which led to Caribbean Air­lines be­ing forced to re­move con­firmed trav­ellers off flights to ac­com­mo­date his guests.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Padarath called the al­le­ga­tions a “com­plete LIE!”

Padarath cel­e­brat­ed his birth­day on Sat­ur­day (Ju­ly 19).

A pic­ture on so­cial me­dia ap­peared to show the min­is­ter among the crowd of spec­ta­tors view­ing parts of the Her­itage Fes­ti­val.

Over the week­end, there were claims on­line that a promi­nent min­is­ter’s birth­day cel­e­bra­tions in To­ba­go prompt­ed CAL to “pull le­git­i­mate trav­ellers off flights to en­sure room for oth­er min­is­ters, friends and fi­nanciers” to at­tend.

How­ev­er, Padarath, trash­ing the so­cial me­dia claim, said, “I have no in­ten­tions of play­ing in­to con­coct­ed sto­ries by the PNM (Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment) and their agents.”

On Sun­day, Caribbean Air­lines al­so dis­missed the claims. In a state­ment, it said no con­firmed pas­sen­gers on the air­bridge were dis­placed to ac­com­mo­date Gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials. CAL ex­plained that all pas­sen­gers hold­ing con­firmed book­ings on both days were on their booked flights and sev­er­al peo­ple trav­el­ling on stand­by were al­so served. CAL al­so point­ed out there were 182 un­used seats on the air­bridge last Sat­ur­day.

Mean­while, Padarath didn’t re­ply to ques­tions for his views on Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s call for her min­is­ters and Gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials not to en­gage in par­ty­ing and fete­ing dur­ing the State of Emer­gency. Padarath al­so did not re­spond to queries on whether or not the Prime Min­is­ter’s in­struc­tions came be­fore or af­ter the al­leged par­ty in To­ba­go.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s di­rec­tive fol­lowed the at­ten­dance of sev­er­al min­is­ters at a US Em­bassy cock­tail par­ty on Ju­ly 18, hours af­ter the SoE was called.


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