By Prior Beharry
PRIME Minister Dr Keith Rowley agrees to meet the four widows of the divers who died in the Paria Fuel Trading Company tragedy two years ago, but he will not politicise it.
One of the widows said she hoped he will meet with them as soon as possible.
On February 25, 2022, Fyzal Kurban, Kazim Ali Jnr, Yusuf Henry, Rishi Nagassar and Christopher Boodram were sucked into a 36-inch pipeline at Berth No 6 at Pointe-a-Pierre. Boodram was the lone survivor.
A Commission of Enquiry said that Paria should be charged with corporate manslaughter and that the families of the divers should be some kind of compensation.
The widows have been protesting outside Paria’s headquarters in Pointe-a-Pierre every Thursday saying they wanted the board of Paria to be fired and to have a face-to-face meeting with the prime minister.
At a press conference at Whitehall on Friday, AZP News asked Dr Rowley if he will meet with the wives of the deceased divers.
He said, “I am ensuring that I do not prejudice the interest of the people of Trinidad and Tobago and I have not and will not play politics with the tragedy of Paria.
Dr Rowley said, “I will not play politics. If the families want to meet as prime minister, I will meet with them, but I will not meet with them in the context of any political outcome of the Paria tragedy, they are families, I have a responsibility for them. I am the Prime Minister of all of T&T and if the families want to meet with me I’ll meet with them. But I am not playing politics with the Paria tragedy.”
Contacted for comment, the widow of Rishi Nagassar, Vanessa Kussie said no politics was involved in calling the meeting.
She said, “I hope he meets us as soon as possible since at the end of this month will make it two years since our husbands died.”
Kussie said, “I hope he meets us as soon as possible to get compensation for life since our husbands who died were the breadwinners in our families and they were taken from us. They were murdered.”
She added that her husband’s body was the last to be flushed out of the pipeline and he was alive until then, “the autopsy proved that,” adding, “they flushed him out and he was alive, it was murder.”
Kussie is also the United National Congress (UNC) Local Government councillor for the district of Couva West/Roystonia. Asked if she was politicising the issue, she said no.
She said, “I am visiting the prime minister with the other wives not as a politician but as a citizen.
But, Couva South MP Rudranath Indarsingh said he was not very optimistic about the meeting since the prime minister has made his position clear and has not yet fired the board of Paria.
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