PRIME Minister Dr Keith Rowley says legal action to institute legal proceedings against Chief Justice Ivor Archie under Section 137 of the Constitution will cost millions to taxpayers.
He was speaking on Tuesday during a news conference at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s.
Rowley was responding to the vote of the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago (LATT) on Friday in favour of having judicial review proceedings against the prime minister for not taking any action against the CJ.
The Prime Minister said, “This matter involving the Law Association and the way they have conducted their business here, I have no hesitation in saying that this matter has lost any public interest, purity and is a political matter.”
Referring to the advice he received from a Queen’s Counsel not to investigate whether impeachment proceedings should be instituted against the Chief Justice, Rowley said, “I used taxpayers’ money, through the Office of the Attorney General, and got advice.”
He said, “I trust that the people of TT who are being asked to pay the legal bills will view my action as reasonable, even if you don’t agree with it.”
Rowley said, “This lawsuit of suing the prime minister and ‘Rowley being sued’ is not costing me one cent.
“It is costing the taxpayer. It is you, the taxpayer, who will now have to be paying the millions of dollars in legal fees to carry on this political charade.
“As a taxpayer myself, I just hope that if and when the law is used, and it comes forward and there are liabilities to be paid, that the taxpayer would be recompensed.”
