Did Keith Rowley and Marlene Mc Donald go to the Trinidad and Tobago mission in New York on November 5th, 2010 as they have claimed?
Last week T&T's ambassador to the UN and head of the mission wrote the Permanent Secretary in the foreign affairs minister advising that checks revealed that Rowley did not visit the mission in November.
In his letter Rodney Charles said he consulted staff and reviewed the Mission's records and has concluded that no such visit was ever paid "by either the Honourable Attorney General or the Opposition Leader in November 2010, or at any other time thereafter. Additionally, the Charge d' Affairs at the Mission at the said time, Ms Cheryl Ann Millard, has advised that no such meetings were held...
"In fact, at a staff meeting held on April 27, 2011, staff emphatically stated that they would wish not to be associated with the allegations being made," Charles wrote.
The next day Rowley accused Charles of distorting the facts and insisted that he visited the mission on November 5, 2010 and that he had a witness to prove.
The PNM leader added that he cannot understand “how Mr Charles would be in a position to say and to prove that nobody spoke to me or what they said, they didn’t say to me. It is just preposterous.”
Rowley's witness is his parliamentary whip, Marlene Mc Donald. She insisted she was aware of the comments made by staff of the UN mission in New York about a visit there by Ramlogan.
“I was part and parcel of all the comments made at that mission with respect to the ethnic composition of the staff at the mission...No one could say we were not there," Mc Donald insisted.
JYOTI checked the records and we found that November 5th, 2010 was the national Divali holiday in Trinidad and Tobago and the mission in New York was CLOSED on that day. No staff were present so Rowley and Mc Donald could not have officially visited on that day.
November 5, 2010 was a Friday and the mission was also closed on the weekend. The facts would suggest that either Rowley lied or he got his dates mixed up. The opposition leader has suggested that he would apologise "at the appropriate time".
Rowley has been inconsistent in his story all along. On Monday he told reporters he has been conducting “very detailed investigations on the matter and at this moment I can tell that there is some confusion with the facts...At the appropriate time, the correct information and any relevant apologies would be forthcoming.”
In his letter Rodney Charles said he consulted staff and reviewed the Mission's records and has concluded that no such visit was ever paid "by either the Honourable Attorney General or the Opposition Leader in November 2010, or at any other time thereafter. Additionally, the Charge d' Affairs at the Mission at the said time, Ms Cheryl Ann Millard, has advised that no such meetings were held...
"In fact, at a staff meeting held on April 27, 2011, staff emphatically stated that they would wish not to be associated with the allegations being made," Charles wrote.
The next day Rowley accused Charles of distorting the facts and insisted that he visited the mission on November 5, 2010 and that he had a witness to prove.
The PNM leader added that he cannot understand “how Mr Charles would be in a position to say and to prove that nobody spoke to me or what they said, they didn’t say to me. It is just preposterous.”
Rowley's witness is his parliamentary whip, Marlene Mc Donald. She insisted she was aware of the comments made by staff of the UN mission in New York about a visit there by Ramlogan.
“I was part and parcel of all the comments made at that mission with respect to the ethnic composition of the staff at the mission...No one could say we were not there," Mc Donald insisted.
JYOTI checked the records and we found that November 5th, 2010 was the national Divali holiday in Trinidad and Tobago and the mission in New York was CLOSED on that day. No staff were present so Rowley and Mc Donald could not have officially visited on that day.
November 5, 2010 was a Friday and the mission was also closed on the weekend. The facts would suggest that either Rowley lied or he got his dates mixed up. The opposition leader has suggested that he would apologise "at the appropriate time".
Rowley has been inconsistent in his story all along. On Monday he told reporters he has been conducting “very detailed investigations on the matter and at this moment I can tell that there is some confusion with the facts...At the appropriate time, the correct information and any relevant apologies would be forthcoming.”
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