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PADARATH: SMITH INCONSISTENT, REPAY $150K
Posted On 11 Apr 2018
Princes Town MP, Barry Padarath indicated that he is bewildered and somewhat amused by the statements of former Sport Minister Darryl Smith’s comments in the Trinidad Express today.
Padarath stated that the comments attributed to Smith in today’s Trinidad Express totally contradicts the position he originally took when the matter was first raised in a front page story on the Newsday Newspapers.
On March 25th, when contacted by the Newsday for comment on the allegations of sexual harassment and the Minister’s alleged role, Smith said this “I am unable to provide any comment with respect to this matter where I was clearly not a party”.
However, weeks after that report, Smith attempts to assure the nation that he has evidence to clear his name. Padarath stated that Smith should have come clean to the nation in the first instance and anything he has to say now would be questionable and suspicious. Padarath questioned why did the Minister feel compelled to lie about his alleged role in this matter if he was not guilty?
Padarath urged the former Minister to get his story right regarding his alleged involvement in this sordid matter. The MP also stated that any attempt to sanitize Smith through the committee set up by the Prime Minister to investigate this matter would be treated with resistance.
Padarath demanded that in the public interest, Smith be made to repay the $150,000.00 to the state and to get himself a good lawyer as this investigation was going to be one “long hot summer”.
Padarath also had some choice words for Minister Camille Robinson Regis, head of the PNM Women’s League. He told Robinson Regis to stop playing politics, he added that Regis, especially as a woman, should put decency and integrity ahead of politics, Carrie Ann Moreau should be treated as your sister during this time and not as a political football. Padarath said Robinson Regis flip flop on this matter being a “non story” demonstrates how shameless and callous PNM treat with these serious matters in the interest of advancing their own political agenda as well as protecting their own members.
