(Trinidad Express) “A pure fanciful fabrication.”
This is how Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley yesterday described the claims of a man named Akil Abdullah and Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Chief Secretary Farley Augustine that he (Abdullah) received a bribe to damage Augustine.
At yesterday’s special sitting of the THA, Augustine played video recordings which he said he had made secretly of his meeting with Abdullah, who is a former membership and mobilisation officer of the Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP).
According to the recordings played at the sitting, Abdullah, who implicated a number of persons in the conspiracy, claimed he met with the Prime Minister on two occasions in Tobago in connection with the role that he (Abdullah) was to play, in respect of the investigations into Augustine arising out of a audiotape in which THA officials were discussing the use of public funds to hire persons for political propaganda purposes.
In a statement issued shortly after the THA sitting at which Augustine played the tapes, the Prime Minister issued a statement in which he denied knowing “any person by the name of Akil Abdullah”.
He said: “In today’s proceedings it was alleged that I have been in contact with Mr Abdullah and other persons in furtherance of interfering and directing police work. Let me firmly place on the record, the following:
“With respect to Mr Akil Abdullah, I do not know any person by that name. I have never met with any such person. I have never spoken to him (Akil Abdullah) in any form or fashion.
“I have never communicated with him in any way. I had absolutely nothing to do with any of that story or action as described by the Chief Secretary and the said Mr Abdullah.”
The Prime Minister also “categorically denied” knowing Inspector Weaver-Ali.
In the recording played by Farley, it was alleged that Weaver-Ali attended the meeting with the Prime Minister and others where the plot against Farley was discussed.
Said the Prime Minister: “I do not know this officer. I have never met her. I have never spoken to her.
“To the best of my knowledge I have never been in her presence. I have never been in any meeting of any kind with her, alone, or in the presence of any other person, as presented by the Chief Secretary to the Tobago House of Assembly.”
The Prime Minister categorically denied as well that he directed the Commissioner of Police to take action in the investigation into Augustine.
“Further, I categorically deny that I was in any meeting with persons named as described by the Chief Secretary—that is, Officer Weaver-Ali, attorney-at-law Gilbert Peterson and Ancil Dennis.
“I state, without fear of contradiction, that this purported meeting wherein I supposedly directed the Commissioner of Police to take certain action, never occurred.
“As far as I am concerned, it is a pure fanciful fabrication by person/s for their own nefarious purpose.”
