Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has in­struct­ed his at­tor­neys to take le­gal ac­tion against Op­po­si­tion Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tion can­di­date De­von Thomas for what he deems the "ut­ter­ly vile and deroga­to­ry state­ments" made against him dur­ing a UNC cam­paign meet­ing on Sat­ur­day.

A state­ment from the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter said, "There is ab­solute­ly no room in Trinidad and To­ba­go for state­ments which have sin­is­ter and di­vi­sive un­der­tones and seek to de­scribe the Prime Min­is­ter as hav­ing com­mit­ted a heinous crime."

It added: "The Ho­n­ourable Prime Min­is­ter has in­struct­ed his at­tor­neys to sue Mr De­von Thomas, the can­di­date for Febeau/Bourg Mu­la­tresse as soon as the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions have con­clud­ed."

Thomas, in turn, used Face­book to is­sue a pub­lic apol­o­gy.

"I wish to apol­o­gise to the Po­lit­i­cal Leader of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress, Mrs Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and to the par­ty for com­ments I made dur­ing my per­for­mance at the Work­Na­tion ral­ly on Sat­ur­day."

He added: "I deeply re­gret the re­marks, and I would al­so like to apol­o­gize to my sup­port­ers, who have been with me on this jour­ney to rep­re­sent the com­mu­ni­ty of Febeau/Bourg Mu­la­tresse. I al­so wish to apol­o­gise to the Prime Min­is­ter for my com­ments. My com­mit­ment to work­ing to im­prove the lives of peo­ple and to get­ting Trinidad and To­ba­go work­ing again re­mains strong. I am com­mit­ted to fight­ing pover­ty, up­lift­ing peo­ple every­where, and work­ing to­wards mak­ing the UNC’s vi­sion of a brighter, more pros­per­ous fu­ture for our na­tion a re­al­i­ty. Once again, I am tru­ly sor­ry for what I said on stage, and as­sure every­one that I will do my best to make amends."

Elec­tors will go to the polls to­day in the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions.