CORRUPTION allegations against Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal are “fabricated” and a racist strategy to campaign in the general election that “all them Indian is thief.”
So said Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar in response to fresh allegations of corruption and financial impropriety brought by the Estate Management and Business Development Company Ltd (EMBD) in a civil claim against a group of contractors and Moonilal, the former Housing Minister under Persad-Bissessar’s government from 2010 to 2015.
The new allegations are that payments were made by some of the defendant contracting companies to third parties connected to Moonilal and the United National Congress (UNC).
The Express asked Persad-Bissessar by phone yesterday if she was concerned about these new allegations, given that she was prime minister when these alleged corruption practices occurred.
She responded, “Not at all. This is the tenth year that the PNM has been pathetically peddling these same tired allegations without getting anywhere. Every election, EMBD is the PNM manifesto because they have no achievements to speak of. This is a desperate civil case created by PNM operatives with the sole purpose of smearing the UNC because the Government’s attempt to fabricate a criminal case flopped after wasting hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.”
The UNC’s screening committee is expected to continue screening candidates today for the upcoming general election, including screening Moonilal, who has represented the people of Oropouche East for 23 years, having been first elected to Parliament in 2002.
Persad-Bissessar said the “fresh allegations” conveniently came up in a general election year and insisted they were PNM propaganda.
“Why should these foolish allegations, which were fabricated by PNM operatives at EMBD and PNM ‘eat ah food’ lawyers, impact our screening process? This is the same pattern as the emailgate hoax and the Nelson fake indemnity scandal,” she said.
Fattening
lawyers’ pockets
The former prime minister called for accountability regarding the millions of taxpayers’ dollars being spent on what she called a “witch hunt,” which she said was fattening the pockets of select lawyers.
“Many of the same dunce PNM lawyers were also involved in these. These allegations have no merit and, therefore, are inconsequential to our screening process. The same contractors that the PNM are suing in this case have been participating in building the $200 million Balisier House—make that make sense. Dr Moonilal’s family didn’t collect $250 million in rent…in that entire fabricated case, nowhere can it show that Dr Moonilal got a cent or any benefit from anyone,” she said.
Persad-Bissessar continued, “This is just the same lame and lazy electioneering from the PNM for their base, as always, so they can run their racist ground campaign that ‘all them Indian is thief.’ They love to fabricate these cases to then pay tens of millions to PNM ‘eat ah food’ lawyers, and then the case gets thrown out. The PNM has been running this scheme for years to enrich their dunce lawyers. The Government should try hunting for the missing $3 billion that no one can find.”
Persad-Bissessar said the UNC remains focused on preparing for the general election and screening continues for not only Oropouche East today but Claxton Bay (formerly Pointe-à-Pierre), La Horquetta /Talparo, Princes Town and her own constituency seat of Siparia, where she has represented the people for 30 years, since 1995.
Before screening, the UNC stated that in the spirit of Valentine’s Day and the Carnival season, it will host a free cultural show for the public at its party headquarters at 31 Mulchan Seuchan Road, Chaguanas from 4 p.m.