Gopee-Scooon claims victimisation in Petrotrin's request for her to vacate Point Fortin property

File 2009: Paula Gopee-Scoon hugs President Obama. The president attended the Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain; Gopee-Scoon was Foreign Minister at the time

The MP for Point Fortin, Paula Goppe Scoon, has refused a request from State-owned Petrotrin for her to vacate a house owned by the company, which she occupies rent-free.

Petrotrin wrote the PNM member about the matter in September last year asking her to vacate the premises at Clifton Hill by December 2011. However she has not done so, claiming that Petrotrin is victimising her.

"I intend to continue living there. What they would be doing is breaking a contract," she said.

Sport Minister Anil Roberts raised the matter in parliament Friday during debate on a finance bill. In responding, Gopee-Scoon accused the government of having no regard for "the sanctity" of an agreement.

She said the company claimed that it wants her to leave because it is expanding and needs to use all its properties. However she said she does not believe that is the real motive.

She said Petrotrin has six properties on the same street. "The first one you meet is in a dilapidated condition and they have done nothing about it...So why are they picking on me? In another property, a vagrant resides. He sleeps there every night...And Petrotrin has not sought to remove that vagrant.."

The MP told the Express newspaper, "I am not going to put up a nasty battle over this. Neither would it deter me from serving my constituency."

Goppe-Scoon lives in Westmoorings, a posh residential community on the West Coast just outside Port of Spain. She said she sometimes spends four days a week in Point Fortin.

She expressed surprise that Roberts chose to raise the issue in Parliament, "forcing me to respond publicly".

The former Foreign Minister in the Manning PNM administration asked whether the decision to take back the home is part of the Government's move to "disable the opposition PNM" in Point Fortin and put itself in a stronger position.

Previous MPs for the constituency have lived in the same house. They include Selby Wilson, Vincent Lasse and Larry Achong. 

None of them lived in the constituency. Wilson was a member of the NAR, which was in office from 1986 to 1991. Achang was a PNM member and Lasse was elected as the PNM MP but crossed the floor and joined the Panday UNC government. During his tenure in that administration he continued to reside in the house.