PNM's Dennis slams Watson's call

KINNESHA GEORGE-HARRY

PNM member, Ancil Dennis, is denying that Tobagonians want secession as claimed by Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) leader Watson Duke.

Dennis, who also holds the portfolio of Assistant Secretary in the Office of the THA Chief Secretary, was at the time addressing reporters during the party’s Tobago Council’s press conference last Thursday at the council’s office in Scarborough.

He said: “No consultation, no discussion with Tobagonians…just got up one morning maybe on the wrong side of the bed and decided that Tobago should secede from Trinidad. Where did Watson Duke get this idea? Whom did Watson Duke consult with and meet with to come to the conclusion that those statements now represent the views and aspirations of Tobagonians?”

Dennis said he was baffled how the long-standing conversation about Tobago’s autonomy has suddenly taken the form of complete secession. “Why move from a position where the main Tobago voices in politics were working together and speaking together on this issue, to a situation where a totally new, crazy idea is being injected into the equation to suggest the people of Tobago want to secede.

“While the PDP is clearly the party of secession, the PNM here in Tobago is in fact the party of Tobago’s autonomy,” Dennis said adding that apparently Duke is obsessed with words beginning with the letter S. “Sexual misconduct, sedition and more recently, secession.

“I am convinced that maybe there is some dream or some obsession with him being Tobago Prime Minister and I think all of us would be convinced that Watson Duke is not only selfish but self-serving and I would also like to place on record that he is the king of victimisation,” he said.

Dennis also turned his guns at the PDP's deputy Political Leader and THA Minority Councillor Dr Faith B.Yisrael who recently warned Tobagonians not to fear for their jobs as she said people were being threatened with the loss of their Cepep and URP jobs if they do not vote for the PNM in next year’s general elections.

“All of us are adults, we went to school and we have sense and all of us are aware of how voting is conducted in this country. We know that once you go into that private booth, nobody in this country or in this part of the world would be aware of who you voted for.

"It is clearly an attempt to mislead Tobagonians, it is clearly an attempt to lie to Tobagonians and also bring this great party and this Tobago House of Assembly administration into disrepute,” Dennis said as he issued a challenge to the Minority councillor as well as the other members of the PDP to produce evidence of threats of job loss if Cepep and URP workers do not vote PNM.