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Friday, May 23, 2025

Paria manager’s home picketed again

by

Radhica De Silva
1177 days ago
20220302
Activists from the First Wave Movement, Responsible Parents Group of TT, Covid 19 Transprrancy Advocacy Group of TT and the Civil and Human Rights Alliance sit outside the home of Paria Terminal Operations Manager Collin Piper at Gulf View, La Romaine, last night.

Activists from the First Wave Movement, Responsible Parents Group of TT, Covid 19 Transprrancy Advocacy Group of TT and the Civil and Human Rights Alliance sit outside the home of Paria Terminal Operations Manager Collin Piper at Gulf View, La Romaine, last night.

RISHI RAGOONATH

Rad­hi­ca De Sil­va

Black can­dles were lit out­side the home of Paria’s Ter­mi­nal Man­ag­er Collin Piper at Gulf View on Tues­day night as ac­tivists from sev­er­al groups gath­ered for a sec­ond con­sec­u­tive night to de­mand an­swers about the deaths of four divers.

The gath­er­ing start­ed with three mem­bers of the First Wave Move­ment, led by Umar Ab­dul­lah around 6.30 pm.

Pres­i­dent of the South Oropouche River­ine Flood Ac­tion Group Ed­ward Mood­ie ar­rived a short while lat­er, fol­lowed by mem­bers of the Re­spon­si­ble Par­ents Group of TT, COVID-19 Trans­paren­cy Ad­vo­ca­cy Group of TT and the Civ­il and Hu­man Rights Al­liance.

Piper’s neigh­bours peeped out of their homes as the ac­tivists rang the door­bell and then sat with­out masks in front of Piper’s front gates.

Po­lice of­fi­cers ar­rived a short while lat­er in a pan­el van, usu­al­ly used when ar­rests are made.

But they left af­ter see­ing the gath­er­ing.

Ab­dul­lah said they planned to con­tin­ue pick­et­ing out­side the homes of man­agers who have failed to meet with griev­ing rel­a­tives.

Ab­dul­lah said, “ I am call­ing for a swift au­dit in­to the health and safe­ty prac­tices in Paria and it would be im­por­tant to go be­yond. Thir­ty-sev­en years ago, Collin Piper was al­so em­ployed in that pipeline.”

“When we were wait­ing for them, they ran out the back door and they nev­er met with us. This is the most dis­gust­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tion and there is no pro­fes­sion­al­ism. No hu­man­i­ty,” Mood­ie said.

He said the Coast Guard divers should have been pre­pared.

“We want in­ter­na­tion­al in­ves­ti­ga­tors to come in and it is time for re­al ac­count­abil­i­ty,” Mood­ie said.

He said many non-gov­ern­men­tal or­gan­i­sa­tions and pri­vate in­ter­est groups have shown out­rage for what hap­pened to the divers.

Ravi Ramdeen, of San­gre Grande, said he knew one of the divers Yusuff Hen­ry.

“He grew up to be a bril­liant young man and it is sad. He has gone away too soon. There must be swift jus­tice for the peo­ple who are re­spon­si­ble for what hap­pened. There must be some jus­tice,” he added.

The Oil­field Work­ers Trade Union has al­so been pick­et­ing the homes of oth­er Paria man­agers since the in­ci­dent.

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