PNM tells Duke: Apologise for yourself

PNM's Tobago Council political leader Tracy Davidson-Celestine is calling on the Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) political leader Watson Duke to personally apologise to two Tobago women for comments made two days before the August 10 general election.

During an August 8 PDP campaign meeting in Crown Point, Duke described two Tobago women as "dutty, stinking girls" and called their names on the platform. The PDP leader claimed the woman and her female attorney were defaming him on social media and he would take them to court.

On Tuesday during a virtual press briefing, PDP’s deputy political leader Farley Augustine apologised on Duke’s behalf. However, in a press release on Wednesday, Davidson-Celestine said Augustine’s apology was inadequate.

She said, “The Tobago Council of the PNM remains steadfast in its condemnation of the PDP political leader Watson Duke for his vicious public verbal abuse of two women in the run up to the August 10 general election. Nearly 11 days after Duke’s vitriolic attack on women, a half-baked apology comes via Duke’s junior, Farley Augustine.

“Duke wasn’t man enough to apologise for the public abuse of the two women. He had to send his deputy to do it. What is the signal this sends to Tobagonians, by the man who desires to lead this island.”

The PNM Tobago leader added: “If this is how the PDP leadership treats women, imagine how he will treat the rest of us. It is sad that Mr Duke could not say sorry to the women whom he hurt, with the most painful verbal abuse. He owes all the women of this island an apology.

“We did nothing to invite disrespect on any platform by any politician and certainly not disrespecting anyone in the Tobago society. Sorry, Farley! You cannot hide behind that half-baked apology; true leadership means taking full responsibility. Watson Duke must apologise to Tobago women.”

On July 31, Duke's attorney Lionel Luckhoo served a preaction protocol letter to a woman demanding the removal of a Facebook post in which she claimed, among other things, she was laid off from the PSA in 2017. Duke is the president of the PSA.

The woman's lawyer, Melanie Roberts-Radgman, in her reply, said Duke's name was not called in the Facebook post and "any inferences made regarding a connection between the contents of the posts and your client...could only be attributed to the already existing public estimation in which your client is held."