"I now call this court to order!"That's how former High Court judge Herbert Volney began his maiden political speech in St Joseph Monday, declaring that his presence is a defining moment in the history of the country.
Volney, who quit his job last week, is the United National Congress (UNC) candidate for St Joseph, taking on Kennedy Swaratsingh, who was the MP for the constituency in the last Parliament.
Volney said he had planned to use a prepared speech but "the spirit" moved him to speak from his heart and "attack with full force and the truth shall set you free".
He said God guided him to bring three items to the meeting which symbolise what is about to happen - a set of keys, his Trinidad and Tobago ID card and a snake.
The serpent, he said, represents Patrick Manning and the People's National Movement (PNM). And he said on May 24, the people will "cut off the head of the serpent and consign Patrick Manning and his minions to the political cemetery to of Trinidad and Tobago."
Volney said the keys represent the keys to Whitehall and government and the ID card is proof that he is a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago.
Volney charged that state lawyers are using public resources to make a case against him to state that he is still a judge. He said Manning and the PNM are only angry because of which platform he has chosen.
"If I had gone to Patrick Manning and asked to be a candidate for St Joseph he would have agreed," he said.
"Volney is not PNM," he declared. "Volney is UNC and I shall be part of the next government of Trinidad and Tobago."
Volney said as as judge he wore to uphold the constitution and the law and that is why he had to leave the bench. "I had to leave the Judiciary because of the assault in the Judiciary by one John Jeremie." He said now he will fight for the independence of the Judiciary from the outside.
He spoke of what he said was the Attorney General's abuse of office in hounding the former chief Justice and laying false charges that were eventually dropped. Volney also alleged that Jeremie fabricated a murder case against Prof. Vijay Narayansingh and his wife.
Volney was the judge in that case. He said when he considered the evidence from a convicted felon named Paris he advised the jury to stop the case. He said Jeremie's harassment and his interference will stop on May 24.
Volney said he will much more to say during the campaign and spared some choice words for his opponent. He said Swaratsingh has slept with sewer rats in the PNM so the former priest should now be known as "sewer-rat-singh".
No comments:
Post a Comment