The Alliance For Change today said that it had more evidence of the government’s involvement with Johnny Welshman, the man who this week levelled sex abuse allegations against Speaker of the House, Raphael Trotman. Trotman has firmly denied the allegations and obtained an injunction debarring Welshman from repeating the allegations.
The AFC press release follows:
The Alliance For Change is in receipt of information which indicates that Mr. Johnny Antony Welshman who has made allegations against AFC Co-founder and Speaker of the National Assembly Raphael Trotman was directed to seek representation from Ms Jaya Manickchand by a senior official of a government ministry.
Mr. Trotman, following receipt of the information, contacted the head of the ministry and member of Cabinet via telephone and asked for an explanation. The senior government functionary, at that time, denied any involvement. A short time afterward the senior government functionary returned a telephone call to Mr. Trotman confirming that an official in his office did meet with Mr. Welshman and further directed him to Ms. Manickchand who is the sister of Minister of Education Priya Manickchand and a former PPP nominated GECOM Commissioner.
The AFC has received information that apart from the involvement of the staff, the senior government official was himself directly involved in the falsification of the allegations leveled against Mr. Trotman and the overall scheme to tarnish his reputation.
The AFC reiterates that these allegations are nothing more than a dastardly scheme to avert the impending No Confidence motion.
In response to the AFC allegations, Attorney General Anil Nandlall issued the following statement this afternoon:
Statement by Hon. Anil Nandlall, Attorney General and
Minister of Legal Affairs
It is with utter shock that I learnt that I am the latest casualty in a long list of persons implicated by the the Alliance For Change (AFC), in the sexual abuse scandal in which their Founder Leader and Speaker of the National Assembly, the Honourable Raphael Trotman is currently embroiled.
I wish to absolutely and categorically deny any involvement in, or connection with, either directly or indirectly, the said sexual assault fiasco.
On Tuesday 23 rd September, 2014, i.e. long after the allegations of sexual misconduct against Mr. Trotman were made public, I spoke with Mr. Trotman via telephone. As a result of that conversation, I made certain inquiries of the professional staff at the Attorney -General’s Chambers. Those inquiries revealed the following:
1. Approximately one week before, Mr. Johnny Welshman , a person, whom to date I have never seen or spoken with, met State Counsel , Ms. Leslyn Noble at the said Chambers ;
2. I learnt that these two persons had known each other long before and enjoyed some degree of acquaintance;
3. I obviously was not present at, or authorised the holding of that meeting, and indeed only became aware that these persons knew each other and met at the AG Chambers when I made those aforesaid inquiries;
4.To date I am unaware of the reason for that engagement and the content of any discussion which may have taken place thereof;
5. I did not solicit any information regarding the nature of the discussion which took place thereof because I formed the opinion that it was of a personal nature.
It is unfortunate that in their quest to extricate their own, from this morass, the AFC is prepared to implicate so many others.
