By Sue-Ann Wayow
THE family members of three underwater divers whose bodies were pulled out of the underwater pipeline were denied the opportunity to view them on Monday night.
Just before 10 pm, police accompanied the hearses at Paria Fuel Trading Company at Pointe-a-Pierre which carried the remains of the bodies.
The Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) had previously arranged for some family members to enter Paria’s facility to view the bodies.
However, President General of the OWTU Ancel Roget speaking to the media on Monday night said Paria Fuel sneaked the bodies out instead by deceiving the family members into thinking that Paria Fuel’s general manager Mushtaq Mohammed was coming to meet with them.
He expressed outrage at the manner in which the whole situation has so far been handled by the energy company responsible for the berth and pipeline where four men have died. There was only one survivor.
Roget said, “We were waiting. While we were waiting here, under the cover of some… arrangement at another gate, they would have sneaked out the bodies of the divers that were recovered earlier. That is another example of the deceptiveness of this management and the disrespect that continues to be displayed.”
He said while the family and others were waiting outside the main gate, the bodies would have left through another gate located on a hill.
Roget said, “At this point, we are still yet to know exactly if all of the four persons, the divers were recovered, if that is true or not, if it is four if it is three if it is two… we are not going by what they are putting out through their public relations and through their misguiding and misinformation and so on.”
The president-general continued his call for all persons holding top office in Paria Fuel Trading Company to be removed from their positions immediately.
The union and other members of the public will meet every night at the same spot in order to ensure that that happens Roget declared.
He also said, “ We also have to insist that the police do its work independently and that the police don’t find themselves compromised in this whole sordid affair and that they bring criminal charges to the top management of Paria.”
Paria Fuel in a press release issued at 6.45 pm on Monday, the company stated that the bodies of three divers who were not named were discovered and efforts were ongoing to find the fourth.
Rishi Nagassar, Fyzal Kurban, Yusuf Henry and Kazim Ali Jr were sucked into the pipeline on Friday while doing work to repair a leak. Christopher Boodram who was also working was the one rescued.
Energy Minister Stuart Young announced on Monday that a thorough and complete investigation will be conducted into the tragedy by an independent committee.
