Smart calls on Dumas to name the NAR minister who wanted to stage a counter coup in 1990

A former Trinidad & Tobago Attorney General on Friday challenged former Permanent Secretary to Arthur N.S. Robinson to name the government minister who was part of a plan to stage a counter coup against Robinson in 1990.

Anthony Smart issued the challenge in testimony before the inquiry into the failed 1990 Muslimeen coup.

Earlier in the week Reginald Dumas testified that a cabinet minister telephoned him and offered his a cabinet post in a new administration. He said nothing ever came out of it but that led him to believe that some members of Robinson's cabinet might have been planning a counter coup. Dumas didn't name the minister.

Smart was AG at the time. He told the inquiry he never held any discussion with any minister about overthrow prime minister Robinson. He added that he was not aware of any discussions on the matter. 

However when questioned about the possibility of a plan to replace Robinson, Smart admitted that was a possibility. 

Smart issued a media release from his law firm, Gittens, Smart & Co, stating that he was one of the ministers trying to run an alternative government during the uprising while Robinson was a hostage in Parliament.  

"I wish to put the following on record for the benefit of the Commission of Enquiry and the public," Smart's release said:

• “I was one of the ministers at Camp Ogden on July 28, 1990. The others were Herbert Atwell, Clive Pantin, Lincoln Myers and Carson Charles.
• “I held no discussion with any of the aboved named ministers or with anyone else for that matter about the overthrow of Mr Robinson nor was I aware of any discussions being held on the matter.
• “I never discussed with Dumas the possibility of his serving as a minister in a new government.”

Smart stated: “These allegations by Dumas are serious and damning against all the ministers who were at Camp Ogden on that day. 

“He has a public duty and on obligation to name the minister with whom he had the discussion if only to clear the names of the other ministers. And I call upon him to do so.”