By Sue-Ann Wayow
PARIA Trading Company Ltd General Manager Mushtaq Mohammed will be the first person to give oral evidence next year when the Commission of Enquiry (CoE) into the Paria-LMCS tragedy resumes.
The CoE resumes on Wednesday, January 4, 2023 at the International Waterfront Centre, Port-of-Spain.
Mohammed was scheduled to take the witness stand last week when the CoE wrapped up for the year.
However, due to Paria’s late submission of documents, the CoE hearings did not take place on December 13 which caused some hearings scheduled for that week to be postponed into 2023.
Furthermore, Paria’s Terminal Operations Manager Collin Piper was grilled for approximately 10 hours between December 14 and December 16 while in the witness box becoming the witness to give the longest oral evidence to date.
Paria HSE Coordinator Paul Yearwood is also scheduled to give evidence on January 4, 2023.
The CoE evidentiary hearings will conclude for that week on Friday, January 6, 2023.
The following Monday, the hearings will continue and the witnesses are to be named.
On Tuesday, January 10, 2023, from In-Corr Tech Ltd, Zaid Khan is expected to give evidence. The CoE will then give closing statements from January 11, 2023 to January 13, 2023.
On February 25, 2022, five divers conducting repairs on an underwater pipeline located at No. 36 sealine riser on the Berth #6 offshore platform at Pointe-a-Pierre belonging to Paria were sucked into the pipeline.
The five divers were Christopher Boodram, Fyzal Kurban, Rishi Nagassar, Kazim Ali Jr and Yusuf Henry, employees of LMCS, the company subcontracted to do the works.
Boodram is the sole survivor of the accident. The bodies belonging to the others were retrieved days later.
Boodram was the first person to give oral evidence when the CoE began in November.
