Even as Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley took um­brage to claims he in­vit­ed New Na­tion­al Vi­sion (NNV) leader Fuad Abu Bakr to join the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM), the lat­ter says he is al­so of­fend­ed by the cur­rent fi­as­co.Speak­ing on To­ba­go Chan­nel 5’s Rise and Shine pro­gramme yes­ter­day, Row­ley de­nied speak­ing to Abu Bakr on rep­re­sent­ing the PNM in the forth­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tions and called the NNV leader’s claim “bizarre.” “I re­al­ly take um­brage to Fuad telling peo­ple that he met with me and we had any arrange­ment, and la la la la la!” Row­ley said.

“I have not met with and I have not spo­ken to Fuad on any mat­ter, far less to get him in­to the PNM as a can­di­date. I do not know why he is do­ing that but I am just an­noyed that he could be do­ing that.
“Sec­ond­ly, we are a po­lit­i­cal par­ty. We rep­re­sent all the peo­ple of Trinidad & To­ba­go and we are quite hap­py to at­tract peo­ple to the PNM.

“The pur­pose of po­lit­i­cal par­ties is the get po­lit­i­cal sup­port and to win friends and in­flu­ence peo­ple. We are hap­py if we’re do­ing that with all walks of life but that does not mean that you have to come and cre­ate this kind of un­nec­es­sary, bizarre cir­cum­stance.”

On Mon­day, Abu Bakr told CNC3’s The Morn­ing Brew host Hema Ramkissoon that last Tues­day his fa­ther, Ja­maat Al Mus­limeen leader Imam Yasin Abu Bakr, spoke to Row­ley and they were in­vit­ed to get in­volved with the PNM. This was done at Row­ley’s Diego Mar­tin West Con­stituen­cy Of­fice, he claimed.
But Row­ley ex­plained that the se­nior Abu Bakr is his con­stituent who some­times vis­its his of­fice. He said the Gov­ern­ment de­cid­ed to sup­port the Ja­maat’s pri­ma­ry school on Mu­cu­rapo Road as its stu­dents are al­so cit­i­zens. When the se­nior Abu Bakr vis­it­ed his of­fice, Row­ley said it was to de­liv­er a post­card that was signed by the pupils thank­ing him for the Gov­ern­ment’s sup­port.
“That’s what he came to my of­fice for. I don’t know how that be­came me meet­ing with Fuad and Fuad, the leader of a po­lit­i­cal par­ty, to be screened in the PNM. It is just bizarre,” the PM said.

He added that Fuad Abu Bakr was not a PNM mem­ber, was the leader of an­oth­er po­lit­i­cal par­ty and there­fore could not qual­i­fy to rep­re­sent the PNM as a can­di­date for the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tions.
“There was no sit­u­a­tion of him hav­ing a nom­i­na­tion by a par­ty group and com­ing for screen­ing. We said that over and over and over and he is go­ing on the me­dia and say­ing ‘I met with the po­lit­i­cal leader’. It is not true. It is sim­ply not true.”
In re­sponse to Row­ley’s de­nial, how­ev­er, Abu Bakr main­tained he was ap­proached by the PNM and that Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Kaz­im Ho­sein was ap­point­ed to fa­cil­i­tate his can­di­da­cy.
Abu Bakr said he nev­er stat­ed that he met Row­ley per­son­al­ly. He said that at last Tues­day’s meet­ing when his fa­ther vis­it­ed Row­ley, rep­re­sen­ta­tions were made about him, his fa­ther and the Ja­maat get­ting in­volved with the PNM. He said he was even giv­en PNM gen­er­al sec­re­tary Fos­ter Cum­ming’s num­ber to call. 
“I don’t know why the Prime Min­is­ter think it is so neg­a­tive to as­so­ciate with me and my po­lit­i­cal work in the open light. I take um­brage to peo­ple who want you to work for them on the ground to cam­paign but they do not want you to be in­volved in the rep­re­sen­ta­tive process,” Abu Bakr said
He said this type of “us­ing” is a thing of the past. (KF)