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Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Rowley: Stop asking me about Vincent Nelson matter

by

Joel Julien
1006 days ago
20221013
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley at the Diego Martin West constituency conference on Wednesday evening.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley at the Diego Martin West constituency conference on Wednesday evening.

Michael Ramsingh

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has de­fend­ed him­self and his Cab­i­net, say­ing they had no role in the in­dem­ni­ty is­sue with King’s Coun­sel Vin­cent Nel­son in the now col­lapsed cor­rup­tion case against for­mer at­tor­ney gen­er­al Anand Ram­lo­gan and UNC sen­a­tor Ger­ald Ramdeen.

He, how­ev­er, as­sured that his Gov­ern­ment will not be de­terred in its quest to tack­le white-col­lar crime.

Row­ley made the com­ments as he spoke at the PNM Diego Mar­tin Con­stituen­cy’s 49th con­fer­ence on Wednes­day night.

He ques­tioned why Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar was call­ing for him to tell the coun­try if he and the Cab­i­net knew about the in­dem­ni­ty agree­ment be­tween the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al and Nel­son.

“I’m lis­ten­ing to the con­ver­sa­tion of the Op­po­si­tion Leader and she is ask­ing over and over and the me­dia is ask­ing over and over, in a sit­u­a­tion where mem­bers of par­lia­ment are hav­ing or should be fac­ing the court for steal­ing pub­lic mon­ey, it ap­pears as though the biggest ques­tion be­ing asked is where is the Prime Min­is­ter and where is the cab­i­net in this,” Row­ley said as he de­liv­ered the fea­ture ad­dress at the con­fer­ence.

“So let me an­swer all of you tonight in the UNC and the me­dia. The Prime Min­is­ter of Trinidad and To­ba­go, es­pe­cial­ly when the post is held by me, but in the Con­sti­tu­tion, it says al­so, the Prime Min­is­ter of Trinidad and To­ba­go has no in­volve­ment and no role in the pros­e­cu­tion of any per­son in this coun­try.

“So those who ask­ing where the Prime Min­is­ter in the mat­ter to do with the DPP’s ac­tion and the Vin­cent Nel­son mat­ter, the Prime Min­is­ter of Trinidad and To­ba­go has noth­ing to do with the pros­e­cu­tion and process­es against any per­son in this coun­try. So stop ask­ing for me.”

Row­ley said this coun­try’s Cab­i­net is not run like a par­lour.

“What mat­ter has to come to the Cab­i­net for the Cab­i­net to de­ter­mine if a per­son has a deal to turn state wit­ness? What the hell that have to do with the Cab­i­net? That is a mat­ter for the State’s le­gal de­part­ment, ful­ly staffed by lawyers, led by an At­tor­ney Gen­er­al, the DPP and the courts,” he said.

“So why is the UNC, and I want to say to me­dia too, why you all ask­ing, you all know some­thing else? But you see when Mrs Per­sad-Bisses­sar starts her stu­pid­ness, the echo cham­ber is the me­dia in­stead of ask­ing what does the Cab­i­net have to do with that, what does the Prime Min­is­ter have to do with that,” Row­ley said.

But de­spite this sit­u­a­tion and oth­ers, Row­ley stat­ed that the PNM will con­tin­ue to pur­sue white-col­lar crime in the face of chal­lenges.

“If you be­lieve that you make enough man­imah and threat­en enough and call for enough res­ig­na­tions and that would fright­en the PNM Gov­ern­ment against tak­ing ac­tion against crim­i­nals who dis­tress this coun­try, you have an­oth­er thought com­ing. Don’t waste your time,” he said.


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