By Sue-Ann Wayow
OPPOSITION Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar has issued a pre-action protocol letter to Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley for statements made about her last Sunday.
Persad-Bissessar in a media release said that the letter was issued on Thursday by attorneys acting upon her instructions.
She said, “Rowley’s act of willfully ascribing statements to me which I never made, are not only demonstrably false, but they are also incendiary and clearly meant to incite ethnic divisions in our society. This is completely unacceptable and abhorrent.”
Persad-Bissessar had asked Dr Rowley for an immediate retraction and apology for his statements both of which she has not yet received.
“To date, Dr Rowley neglected to issue an apology or even acknowledge what he did was reckless, wrong, and irresponsible. As such, I instructed my attorneys-at-law to issue a Pre-Action Protocol Letter to Rowley, which was delivered today,” she stated.
Dr Rowley has been given seven days to issue an “unqualified public retraction of his defamatory statements and make a public apology”.
If he fails to do so, legal proceedings in the High Court would be commenced, the release stated.
Persad-Bissessar said, “Rowley’s statements, which were reported, published, and broadcast on various media, including social media, ascribed to me offensive and racially divisive remarks, which are entirely false, and have caused irreparable damage to my reputation.”
She claimed that Dr Rowley was attempting to promote hatred and distrust among citizens to compensate for his lack of achievement even insinuating that the United National Congress (UNC) was somehow responsible for the recent bomb threats that led to the immediate closure of several primary schools.
Persad-Bissessar said, “I call on all decent and right-thinking citizens irrespective of political allegiance to reject Rowley’s reprehensible attempts to invoke racial discord.”
