‘Not one dollar for kidnappers’

ANGRY, frustrated and depressed over his son’s kidnapping, Port of Spain businessman Farrell Cuffy yesterday sent a strong message to the kidnappers who snatched his son Darrell last Wednesday. “I will not pay one red dollar in ransom for my son’s return home.” Farrell also declared, “I not paying a ransom because if I pay for my son, I will have to pay ransom for my other son and my two daughters also.”

He said he has not eaten or slept since his son’s kidnapping and will continue not eating until the teen is found. “How can I sit here and eat when I don’t know if my son has eaten? My son is a vegetarian. I do not know if he is in the bush. He is a Trinity College student and is not accustomed to this.

“I have four children, two girls and two boys. I never let my children walk the streets, I always take them to and from wherever they go. From primary school to Trinity College, I always pick up and drop. Only when he got his driver’s permit, when I observed his capability of driving to and from school, I gave him a vehicle.”

Yesterday, Cuffy sat in his living room hoping to hear from the kidnappers or police to tell him his son is alive. But no one has called. “Judging from the length of time my son was taken away, I am now starting to feel he may have been killed. I do not want to think that far, because with prayers anything is possible,” Cuffy said.

Last Wednesday at 9.31 pm, 18-year-old Cuffy was driving his father’s BMW along Collens Road, Maraval, when two men bundled him into an SUV with flashing blue lights. He has not been seen since and no ransom has been demanded.

“I do not have any money. People who have money live in a rich area. I am living on Duke and Piccadilly streets on the Laventille side, paying $100 a month in rent in an HDC apartment. I have been living here for the past 20 years with Elizabeth, my wife,” Cuffy said. He also thanked DCP Harold Phillip and acting Snr Supt Ajith Persad, head of the Port of Spain CID, for the compassion and care they have shown towards his family.

“The police call me every morning, during the day and several times after to find out if we are okay and I appreciate that,” Cuffy said. He added that if his son is killed, he will have to accept it and move on. “know if he dies, it is just a funeral I have to keep. Everybody have deaths in their family. I could take that.

“I am not going to pay one red dollar to them and they could take my life if they want, because people born to die, and if God put this on me to happen like this, I don’t have a problem. I know God.

I go to church in the Catholic Church in Guayaguayare Village,” Cuffy said. He said he has two cargo ships which service several islands in the region and has worked very hard for what he has accrued.

“I am not a rich man but a hard-working man, who was living my life with my family, minding my own business when this cruel act happened. All I want is my son returned to me so I could resume my life.”

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"‘Not one dollar for kidnappers’"

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