By Sue-Ann Wayow
ANTI-Covid-19 vaccination protesters including a pregnant woman were detained by police officers in Port-of-Spain on Tuesday for breaching Covid-19 protocols during the event.
The 30 persons arrested were all released late Tuesday night and are expected to appear in court in January to answer the charges. They are charged under the Public Health (2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV)) (No.23) Regulations, 2021 and it is alleged that they have reached Regulation 3 that is congregating in a group of more than ten and therefore face a fine on summary conviction of $250,000 and six months’ imprisonment.
The protest took place near the mass Covid-19 vaccination site near the Paddock at Queen’s Park Savannah.
The persons detained including Umar Abdullah, of the First Wave Movement, Fishermen and Friends of the Sea Gary Aboud, UNC councillor Amit Sooknanan of Aranjuez/Warner Village, UNC activist Brian Stone, ward manager at the San Fernando General Hospital Ricardo Goolcharan and activist Edward Moodie.
The protestors claimed they were observing the health protocols and had no right to be arrested as they were exercising their right to voice their concerns over a national issue. They stated that they were against mandatory vaccination.
The standoff took place between the officers and the protestors around midday with protestors chanting, “Rowley must go.”
Several videos of the incident have been circulating on social media.
Moodie in a video following his detainment said, “They interfered with the wrong man.”
He said the police officers who engaged in such actions should be fired.
Another woman said she “was roughed up like a dog” by the officers.
“This is my country and I am fighting for it,” she said.
A member of the First Wave Movement said the charges were “worth it.”
The movement began a protest walk from the Point Fortin Hospital on Saturday venturing through San Fernando and Central Trinidad and to the Red House before ending at the Paddock on the Savannah.
The movement’s leader Umar Abdullah told AZPNews.com that he found it strange police intervened on Tuesday when all along the walk, there was a police escort.
However, he said, “The police has their job to do. Nobody resisted arrest but it should not have gone down that road.”
He said, “Almighty God is in charge and he directs the situation in getting our voices heard.”
Abdullah said he was released from the St Clair Police Station after 11 pm. He was one of the 15 sent to that station and the 15 were taken to Woodbrook Police Station.
Referring to the protestors, he said, “We wanted to show by numbers, our disappointment as to what the Government has been doing.”
The movement in an earlier statement had stated, “Our Government failed to lead with integrity, equality, fairness and justice and in the interests of our people our Government ministers have lost all self-respect and have disrespected their office in doing so. They have disrespected us by not delivering and we in turn have disrespected ourselves. lost our self-respect by accepting malfeasance, over good governance.”
Members of the First Wave Movement are appealing to Tobagonians to also show the People’s National Movement that they were not afraid of them and to vote them out of leadership on December 6.
