UNC, First Wave activists walk from South Trinidad to Port of Spain

United National Congress (UNC) activist Victor Roberts and First Wave Movement activist Umar Abdullah have taken to the streets in two separate marches from south Trinidad to Port of Spain.

Roberts started his march on Friday in Erin and Abdullah started his on Saturday in Port Fortin.

Roberts is carrying a coffin marked “Democracy Dead” during his march, which will be completed in five legs and is expected to end on Wednesday. The coffin represents the over 2,000 people who have died from covid19 in TT.

On Saturday, Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar joined Roberts for part of the second leg of the march, from Siparia to Pointe-a-Pierre.

In a press release later, the UNC said Persad-Bissessar supported Roberts’s march against “the Government’s gross mismanagement of the pandemic.”

During the third leg on Sunday, Couva North MP Ravi Ratiram walked with Roberts from Claxton Bay to Chase Village. Couva South MP Rudranath Indarsingh then joined Roberts from Savonetta Junction to Exchange Junction in Couva.

Indarsingh told Newsday, “He (Roberts) passed through my constituency today and I was able to meet him.

“Mr Roberts has made it very clear that he’s making a statement as it relates to the collapse of the parallel health care system.

“He’s concerned about the number of covid deaths that have occurred in TT, the lack of ventilators, the lack of ICU beds, the lack of ICU trained nurses and the shortage of nurses in the public health care system.”

When Newsday caught up with Abdullah on the South Main Road in La Romaine on Saturday afternoon, he had nearly finished the first leg of his march, which started at 9am in Point Fortin.

Abdullah told Newsday he was fasting until he completed the first leg at Pond Street in La Romaine, which was several minutes away.

While tired and limping from leg pain, Abdullah said he will persist until the march is completed on Tuesday.

Abdullah said he decided to undertake the effort, dubbed a "pro-democracy march," to fight back against what he called the Prime Minister’s “fascist” behaviour.

Asked what the PM is doing or did to be labelled a fascist, Abdullah pointed to Dr Rowley’s prerecorded address to the nation on November 25.

Abdullah asked, “What prime minister have you seen doing a prerecorded speech like that?

“Nowhere in the world do you see a prime minister` getting on like that.”

He said any move by the PM to introduce a vaccine mandate would put TT further along the path to dictatorship.

Abdullah’s march will be completed in four legs with the first two legs already completed on Saturday (Point Fortin to La Romain) and Sunday (La Romaine to Chaguanas) respectively.

The third leg (Chaguanas to Caroni) will be completed on Monday while the final one on Tuesday will see him walk from Caroni to Red House.

To comply with the public health regulations, only nine people will be allowed to join him at any given time.