Opposition Leader: Keith Rowley must stop his depraved blame games

Keith Rowley casting blame on the citizens who attended the Andrea Bharatt vigils, for the current COVID-19 crisis, is an act of wickedness. What manner of evil mind will pray on Sunday and then on Monday blame vigils for the brutal murders of innocent citizens to distract from the fact that his Government has failed and has no plan to deal with this pandemic? This is a depraved act of deception and deflection by Keith Rowley. The blame is clearly bolted to the chest of Rowley and his government!!

It is lunacy that Rowley is linking the Covid upsurge to vigils held three months ago!

On February 4, 2021, Andrea’s body was found. Her funeral took place on February 12. During that period there were nationwide vigils demanding the Government treat with the safety and protection of women – another area in which the Government has failed miserably.

The Ministry of Health’s own officials have indicated that the Covid spike came after Easter.

Technical Director of the Ministry of Health’s Epidemiology Division, Dr Avery Hinds said on April 21 that one of the driving factors of the surge were congregations during the Easter weekend.

The Prime Minister is also on record saying the place to be for Easter was Tobago.

Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan is on record saying that 50,000 people travelled between Trinidad and Tobago over the Easter period.

It was donkey logic of Rowley to think that restricting international travel will save us while simultaneously having porous borders.

Rowley never attended a vigil and but nonetheless contracted Covid whilst in Tobago.

The Rowley Government as always are reactionary deadbeats, imposing hardship on the people through lockdowns after the horse- that they let loose- has bolted.

There has been a record 221 deaths for the month of May so far, while the overall Covid death toll stands at 390 as of Monday’s data.

These startling figures could have been prevented if we had a proactive Government that procured vaccines early for our nation.

The Prime Minister’s excuse that there are no vaccines holds no water as nations smaller than T&T in the region are moving forward to normalcy through vaccination.

The Government failed to procure vaccines.

The Government failed to secure our borders.

The Government failed to create a plan and policy to lead Trinidad and Tobago out of this pandemic.

The Government is failing people every day as more die from Covid and hundreds of thousands of jobless persons and their families suffer from the virus that is the PNM.

The UNC condemns the Prime Minister’s comments and categorically rejects his false claims.

The UNC commiserates with all the families who were affected by violent crimes. In their time of healing, they should not have to face the wickedness of a Prime Minister who in order to save face and deflect from the failures of himself and his government, resorts to another blame game, this time blaming vigils held for loved ones.

Keith Rowley must stop his depraved blame games and work with all stakeholders to fight this covid crisis. It is clear he can’t do his job and must accept help!

Kamla Persad-Bissessar, SC, MP
Leader of the Opposition