notorious saga
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Abdulah: Jack must step down
Jack Warner must step down as National Security Minister.
This is the view of leader of the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) David Abdulah, who said yesterday that Warner had placed the country in an embarrassing position, given the reports linking him to a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) football corruption probe.
Speaking during a press conference at the MSJ headquarters in San Fernando, Abdulah said, “now we have yet another major crisis of which the allegations and an apparent investigation into a senior government minister is taking place. These investigations are talking place in the United States of America”.
Noting that there have been rumours about these issues for quite some time, Abdulah said: “We want to again congratulate the media for doing investigative work and bringing these matters to public attention. We are now in a very embarrassing situation as a nation as having the minister responsible for national security allegedly being investigated by the State agencies of another country and this will obviously have very significant implications for Trinidad and Tobago.”
Abdulah, whose party pulled out of the People’s Partnership coalition in June 2012, said the MSJ had called for removal of Warner since his supervision of the demolition of the protest camp set up by the Highway Re-Route Movement in Debe last year. He said since that time “it has gone from bad to worse and we have yet another reason for the Prime Minister to take action. She must investigate this matter thoroughly and take action urgently and immediately”.
The Reuters News Agency published a news exclusive on Wednesday, stating that Warner’s son Daryan, was a cooperating witness for the FBI and Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Daryan Warner was reported to be assisting in an investigation into corruption in football’s governing body FIFA. The article stated that among the issues being probed are allegations involving Jack Warner, a former FIFA Vice President, who resigned the position June 2011 amid allegations of bribery.
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar issued a statement late Wednesday, in response to the Reuters article which was headlined “FBI has cooperating witness for soccer fraud probe: sources”.
She stated: “ I will not rely on published reports in the media, but will again seek to get official corroboration of the information now in the public domain before making any determination or pronouncement.”
Abdulah questioned why Persad-Bissessar had not acted and removed Warner from his ministerial post. He said the Prime Minister had investigated other ministers and axed them.
“The Prime Minister very quickly moved to investigate the issue for Section 34 and remove Minister (Herbert) Volney. She investigated other ministers and removed them. She had Cabinet reshuffled without investigation and she removed ministers, including minister John Sandy who did nothing wrong in terms of governance. He was removed as Minister of National Security and one could only speculate why she has not removed Minister Warner.”
Abdulah said Warner should do the right thing and step down.
He said, “Yesterday he (Warner) spoke to graduates of various academies and he was talking about doing what is right morally. I do not know if the Minister of National Security himself knows what is right or wrong or he would have resigned a long time ago. Clearly he does not know that and it is up to the Prime Minister to remove him from the Government and if she does not, she will pay the political price for keeping him in the Government.”

Jack Warner must step down as National Security Minister.
This is the view of leader of the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) David Abdulah, who said yesterday that Warner had placed the country in an embarrassing position, given the reports linking him to a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) football corruption probe.
Speaking during a press conference at the MSJ headquarters in San Fernando, Abdulah said, “now we have yet another major crisis of which the allegations and an apparent investigation into a senior government minister is taking place. These investigations are talking place in the United States of America”.
Noting that there have been rumours about these issues for quite some time, Abdulah said: “We want to again congratulate the media for doing investigative work and bringing these matters to public attention. We are now in a very embarrassing situation as a nation as having the minister responsible for national security allegedly being investigated by the State agencies of another country and this will obviously have very significant implications for Trinidad and Tobago.”
Abdulah, whose party pulled out of the People’s Partnership coalition in June 2012, said the MSJ had called for removal of Warner since his supervision of the demolition of the protest camp set up by the Highway Re-Route Movement in Debe last year. He said since that time “it has gone from bad to worse and we have yet another reason for the Prime Minister to take action. She must investigate this matter thoroughly and take action urgently and immediately”.
The Reuters News Agency published a news exclusive on Wednesday, stating that Warner’s son Daryan, was a cooperating witness for the FBI and Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Daryan Warner was reported to be assisting in an investigation into corruption in football’s governing body FIFA. The article stated that among the issues being probed are allegations involving Jack Warner, a former FIFA Vice President, who resigned the position June 2011 amid allegations of bribery.
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar issued a statement late Wednesday, in response to the Reuters article which was headlined “FBI has cooperating witness for soccer fraud probe: sources”.
She stated: “ I will not rely on published reports in the media, but will again seek to get official corroboration of the information now in the public domain before making any determination or pronouncement.”
Abdulah questioned why Persad-Bissessar had not acted and removed Warner from his ministerial post. He said the Prime Minister had investigated other ministers and axed them.
“The Prime Minister very quickly moved to investigate the issue for Section 34 and remove Minister (Herbert) Volney. She investigated other ministers and removed them. She had Cabinet reshuffled without investigation and she removed ministers, including minister John Sandy who did nothing wrong in terms of governance. He was removed as Minister of National Security and one could only speculate why she has not removed Minister Warner.”
Abdulah said Warner should do the right thing and step down.
He said, “Yesterday he (Warner) spoke to graduates of various academies and he was talking about doing what is right morally. I do not know if the Minister of National Security himself knows what is right or wrong or he would have resigned a long time ago. Clearly he does not know that and it is up to the Prime Minister to remove him from the Government and if she does not, she will pay the political price for keeping him in the Government.”