By Prior Beharry
PRIME MINISTER Dr Keith Rowley says he can take a horn if he gets one.
“Horn” in Trinidad and Tobago parlance is a word used to describe the infidelity of a person.
Speaking in a wide-ranging speech during a political meeting at the Belmont Community Centre on Tuesday evening, he referred to recent vlogs by UNC Senator Anil Roberts.
At the very end of his more than 90-minute speech, Rowley said the worst decision he made was to appoint Gary Griffith as police commissioner.
He said an audit of the firearms department of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) made “very troublesome reading.’
Dr Rowley said, “I realised that I had made a terrible mistake. I took the position as PM that if the best person for the job was a non-PNM person or a person who had served the country in a next political party if he or she were best suited for the job, they should get the job.”
He said the chairman of First Citizens Bank was a former attorney general in a party that was not the PNM, and it probably was one of the best banks in the country while the former chairman of NP was a former UNC MP.
“And that is why when the (Police Service) commission said Gary Griffith was the best person for the job as Commissioner of Police, I take responsibility for giving him a chance and that was the biggest mistake I ever made,” he said.
Dr Rowley said he was not going to do what former prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar did with the Life Sport programme report that implicated former sports minister Anil Roberts.
He said, “Went and expose a report about Life Sport which involved a minister of government and as a result of exposing the report in a particular way, the minister was able to go to the court, win the case and she put him back in the Senate.”
Rowley said, “So far his only accomplishment is to find out who horning me. And attempting to disgrace my wife.”
He said, “Ladies and gentlemen, I must say, it’s painful to watch a female opposition leader tolerate and encourage that under the grounds that, ‘leave me out of allyer bacchanal.'”
Dr Rowley said he was not asking for any help “because my family, we back broad and we spine stiff.”
He said, “So when Anil Roberts prepares videos and tries to scandalise my wife, all I can tell Anil, I can take a horn if I get one, I ent sending nobody to kill nobody.”
There was tremendous laughter in the audience. Many were seen celebrating the statements including Housing Minister and MP for Arouca/Maloney Camille Robison-Regis and Port of Spain Mayor Joel Martinez who were spotted high-fiving each other.
Rowley then ended his speech for the night saying “Great is the PNM.”
